The Chronicles Of The Avatar
by kidkutt17
Summary: Avatar Korra has passed and a new evil plagues the world . Born into the world through a tragic event, Kazuhiko needs to master all four elements whilst growing up in a world threatened by Chaos and beat the darkness to maintain the peace and balance in the world.
1. Chapter 1 - The Revelation

**`Hey everyone! So I've lately been watching LOK again and from most of the fanfics about the next avatar that I've read, they all seem to be going with an earth bender as per the cycle of the elements. I decided , why not try go a different route ? And I have presented a legitimate reason as to why the Avatar in this series is a fire bender and not an earth bender.**

 **So I present, Avatar Kazuhiko! (Pronounced Kuh-zu-iko) or Kazu(Kah-zu) for short.**

 **This is only my second ever fanfic on here!** **So, I'll do my best and let me know what you guys think! Constructive criticism and suggestions to improve are welcome! Cheers!**

 **Legend Of Korra and all other 'Avatar'** **related Material are owned by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko**

 **BOOK ONE : ACCEPTANCE**

Chapter One - The Revelation

* * *

 _Air. Water. Earth. Fire. The world of man and Spirits lived in harmony with each other._

 _Avatar Korra maintained peace and balance in the world for many years during her time as the Avatar. But nothing lasts forever._ _A dark Spirit entity entered this world and threatened to throw it into chaos. This entity of darkness was known as the Raksh._

 _The four nations rallied behind Avatar Korra as conflict built up between the rest of the world and with the Dark spirit and it's followers,a cult organization calling themselves the Rakshasans , who sought to wipe out both good and evil from the world, claiming that that state would be true balance of norms that the Avatar had failed to bring in so many lifetimes._

 _A battle ensued between the Avatar Korra and Raksh deep within the spirit realms on the other side of the portals._

 _That was the last time the world saw Avatar Korra. The legendary Avatar mysteriously vanished after her fight in the spirit world with Raksh reemerging to the mortal world. No one knows to this day what happened on that fateful plane, though stories have been told of that day.  
_

 _With the Avatar fallen, no one stood in their way._

 _On the day the Avatar Korra vanished, the Raksh lay waste to the earth kingdom , purging the lands of every single newborn,killing the avatar-to-be while she was still in her mother's womb , thus delaying the Avatar's return._

 _The Rakshasans had succeeded in performing what the fire nation had failed to do over two centuries Raksh had succeeded in killing_ _the avatar._

 _Panic gripped the world's leaders as the obvious target would be the fire nation ._

 _On the fateful night, one the twelfth day of La's moon, Raksh confronted the baby Avatar and yet, somehow, the child survived._

 _The dark spirit vanished,for it's power had rebounded on itself and had never been seen since._

A _vatar Korra's time in this world had come to an end , and no one knows who the new Avatar or where he is, for he was hidden away from the world ._ _But I believe he still lives. He still walks among us. And I believe that when the the world needs him the most, the Avatar will return._

* * *

The dull silence of the night bore downwards, moving on wards with it's frivolous attempts at casting an image of peace and calm . Nothing moved, for it was an unusually quelled night tonight.

Nothing made a sound, except for the occasional rustling of dried leaves or the lone sound of a cat deer mewling from the mountains. The small town looked like it had just been run over by the great spirits of old, with broken buildings, roads cracked open.

Now, the lone village hospital lay in splinters, demolished from the resulting force of two spiritual entities clashing. Fire and smoke trailed from areas of the derelict building as fire benders worked to reduce the flames and redirect the fumes away from the nostrils of the two children, the only two survivors in the whole building, that lay , still alive.

Water benders rushed in, once their paths had been cleared so as to tend to the two children, who had just been orphaned. Unfortunate .

Having the Avatar born as your child came as a blessing and as a curse . Amidst all the terror and chaos, the two children and their parents had not been able to escape the building and the parents had been slaughtered in the concussive force of the two spirits battling each other .

In all this ensuing chaos, a lone man stood, just a ways away, watching on.

His wispy, chest length white beard billowed in the occasional gusts of wind as his amber eyes peered solemnly at the scene. He could help out, of course. But that would alert the enemy, who he feared was still at large, of his presence. And that would be detrimental to the Avatar's safety. These were dark times indeed.

His long,silky, crimson fire sage robes danced left and right under the clear moonlight , imitating the movements of his long hair that fell to his waist level.

Fire Sage Gao had lived long enough to have seen two generations of Avatars come and go and he had also lived through many eras of terror and tragedy. This just added to his list.

"No sign of him. ", a man muttered as he lowered himself back onto the ground via flame thrusters working from his fists and his heels. Turning to his left, Gao nodded at his Fire bender of a companion.

"And I have reports coming in from other white lotus centers that the Rakshasans all around the world are either running into hiding now that their master has fallen, or they are giving themselves up... D'you think he's really gone?", the man asked.

The other man, the newcomer, was rather young, when compared to the appearance of fire sage Gao. But he was old enough and had seen a lot in his own defense . He had his greying , shoulder length hair tied into a tight topknot atop his head and he also sported a greying beard, though not as long and prominent as Gao's.

His choice of attire was also a lot more functional and modern when compared to Gao's clothing. The man sported a blood red sleeveless robe that hugged tightly around his waist area before hanging just around his knees. He wore figure hugging jet black pants that were inserted into leather boots that rose upto his knees.

His lined and angular face bore the markings of having been through a lot and he had definitely seen a lot. The most eye catching facial feature about him was his rather peculiar eyebrows, which looked sort of like they had been eloquently drawn onto his wrinkled face.

His arms were exposed for everyone to see and his left hand bore a distinct purple scar that ran from the tip of his fingertips all the way to just above his elbow region.

Mako had changed a lot since his younger days and yet, he hadn't changed at all.

That scar had never faded away, even after all this time.

"Raksh was a spirit manifestation entity and spirits can only be destroyed in the mortal world . Avatar Korra made a mistake in battling the dark spirit in it's own realm, where it is at it's most powerful. So no. I believe he will return. And when he does, the new Avatar must be ready to face the inevitable. ", Gao whispered.

"However, Raksh left itself vulnerable here, in the mortal world when it confronted the infant whereupon the avatar spirit manifested and managed to keep the dark spirit at bay.", Gao continued.

Mako bore a grim expression and followed the fire sage's gaze, into the flames being doused .

"Such a horrible thing to happen to them. ', Gao muttered incoherently.

Mako couldn't agree more.

But perhaps this had a more deeper effect on him due to the fact that he had lost someone he loved dearly, someone who inspired him and someone who was one of his closest friends. He still had not recovered from Korra's apparent death, even though it had been over twenty four hours ago now.

He still found it hard to swallow the fact that she really was gone. He wondered how Asami and the rest of the others were taking the news.

And then Raksh wiped out an entire population of earth nation newborns and he did it less than an hour after his battle with Korra. He slaughtered all of them. All to delay the avatar.

Cruel. Psychotic. Shocking.

It made him even more mad that the United Nation's forces were doing nothing about it besides protecting their own citizens.

And now Raksh had somehow entered the Fire nation even under all this protection that had been put up, only marginally late to kill the women who had been bearing the boy.

He thought it a miracle that the Avatar had survived , though he didn't know how.

"We need to take the children away from here. Take them to a safe place where they can be protected all the time. Until he is ready, the boy must never who he is. No one must ever know that the Avatar survived even the Lotus, to be safe.", Gao muttered with a serious tone, exchanging a look with Mako as the latter nodded.

" But d'you have a place in mind?", Mako inquired, curious himself.

A twinkling glint flashed through Gao's ambers as a small smile crept up his face.

"You could say that I do.", he chuckled as his thoughts traveled to the conversation he had had with the newly crowned Fire Lord Zuroh of the Fire nation. The son of Lord Iroh had gratefully agreed to take in the Orphaned Avatar and his sister to keep them safe from harm until he was ready.

Just then, from inside, the faint wail of a young newborn baby could be heard.

* * *

 **SIXTEEN YEARS LATER**

The warm sun bathed the cemented streets in it's glorious warmth , with people basking in it's warmth, going on about their daily chores and work. Some wore traditional , silken , long-flowing robes while the younger generation strutted around in fashionable clothing.

In the past fifty-five years since Avatar Korra opened up the third spirit portal in Republic city, the world had changed profoundly.

True, the interference of the spirits and spirit wilds had hampered the technological advancements of the age, but man's ingenuity could not be stopped.

The Fire Nation capital had giants telescreens built around the walkways, illuminating the place in it's light as it ran advertisements on local company brands and promos for the upcoming birthday of the Fire Lord.

While none of the other four nations were as technologically sound as the United Republic , they had certainly moved on past the days of lighting up torches for light and using messenger hawks for delivering messages.

The newly built Varrick industries tram network whirred around the bustling city as men and women in official red attire boarded the silvery trains that ran on magnetic power, going about their daily work.

The beaten path was being trodden on today as it was every other day. Nothing was different. Everything was same, including the daily round of public disturbance the street rats of the local area brought about.

The distinct, gushing noise of active fire bending in the vicinity signaled the people to move out of the way as the local goons, the Agni Kai's were already out and about, giving chase to one of the street rats that scavenged around the area. The pitter-patter of feet grew louder and louder, drawing nearer and nearer and soon, three figures rounded the corner of the Lord Zuko central square in the middle of capital city in the Fire nation.

Kazuhiko ducked under two men carrying a plank with considerable ease while the two stockier triads men chasing him had a bit more of a harder time maneuvering around the bystanders due to their older age .

"Stop right there, Kid! Don't make this harder for yourself!", one of them, the one with a scruffy goatee, yelled as they gave chase.

"Aww! But we're having so much fun, guys!", Kazuhiko yelled back, barely looking over his shoulder as he leaped right through the vending stall of a cabbage vendor in his early sixties , who flung his hands across his stock of cabbages in order to protect them from harm's way from the reckless boy.

After the young street rat had sprinted through his stall, the tanned skinned, weasley old man cursed under his breath and was about to turn back to his beloved cabbages when the two triad men shot fire balls at the stall, bursting it into flames immediately, clearing the way as they gave chase.

"NO! NOT MY CABBAGES!...", the man cried in despair as the triads men sprinted through, bending the fire around them.

The warmth of the sun rejuvenated Kazuhiko, warming up his muscles as he clutched onto a nearby pole to swing around acrobatically and change direction. Craning his neck to glance back, he almost yelped as he saw the triads men were gaining on him.

He swung his hands to his sides and shot out a steady jet of incinerating fire from his palms and feet , propelling him upwards from ground level and onto the rooftops of the suburban area. With a crunch, he rolled forward to reduce the impact of landing and he quickly picked himself up, sprinting across the red tiled rooftops , leaping across entire four foot wide gullies down below, almost three floors down, to be exact.

As he landed on another rooftop, a door swung open and a lady in her mid twenties, in her bathrobes walked out. She turned and caught sight of the young fire bender and the two gang members sprinting towards her. Immediately she let out a terrified shriek and rushed back in, closing the door behind her.

"Sorry lady!", Kazu called out as he sprinted past.

"You're dead, Kid!", the bulkier triads men threatened, hurling a fire ball at Kazu's feet which the sixteen year old managed to dodge in the nick of time.

He halted at the edge of a rooftop and glanced down. Teetering on the edge, he spun around on his heel, giving both of them a a mischievous grin.

"Really? Cause I feel so alive right now! ", he taunted before dropping off the ledge with a mock salute and a cheeky grin.

The men gasped and rushed forward just in time to see the sixteen year old boy soften his landing in time by shooting out fire propellers from his feet moments before he hit the paved roadway.

"See ya later, Fellas!", Kazu smirked before sprinting away.

The men leapt over the ledge and propelled themselves forward through their ow fire streams to try and catch up with the agile boy.

"We got you now, Kid!", one of them called out, seeing Kazu turn around a corner.

"Do you really?", he called out cheekily and before the men knew what was happening, Kazuhiko had disappeared into the busy pedestrian streets of Raginiko avenue among a bunch of high school children, making it impossible for the two gang member to identify the boy.

"AAARRGH!", the bulkier man roared in anger, flames escaping his nostrils as they knew they had lost the boy with their supplies. This action of his earned him a few scrutinizing glances from passing bystanders.

"I'll have you one day, street rat!", he called out to no one in particular as the young fire bender they were chasing chortled with gleeful laughter, slipping away into the crowd.

* * *

Kazu slowed down his pace , chuckling and panting simultaneously at his eventful morning. He crossed the crowded streets trudging along to his usual spot near black ridge bay, underneath the bustling populance of the food market upstreet. He swept his jet black hair out of his face, letting his skin glisten in the morning sun as he let out a small breath to slow down his heart rate, for his heart was thumping resoundly in his chest due to the cardiovascular activity of running around Capital city.

With a grin on his face, the sixteen year old sat down cross legged on a flight of stone stairs carved out of the roadway, leading to an abandoned opera house and unzipped the black leather satchel he had snatched from the Agni kais. He knew his sister would tell him off for stealing but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Reassuring himself with that thought, he sighed and opened up the satchel and emptied the contents out in front of him.

There were two or three tattered sea fare log books, five finance folders, a pair of metal bracelets imported (probably illegally )from Zaofu,a dagger with the Agni Kai insignia engraved on it's hilt, and finally, as his stomach let out a hungry growl, a tasty looking bag of crispy lentil chips and sweet bread fell out onto his lap. It wasn't the ideal breakfast but it'll have to do. It beat having to trouble his sister for food anyway.

He stuffed the other contents back into the satchel and placed it down next to him. With a hungry look in his eyes, Kazuhiko clapped his hands together ,rubbing them in excitement before snatching up the bag of chips and was about to rip it open when he heard a distressed groan coming from across the street.

Looking around for the source of the noise, he let out a quiet sigh when he caught sight of two children, peering at him, well, more so at the sandwich on his lap. There was pure hunger written on their faces.

One looked to be a six year old boy, with a scrawny figure and auburn hair, which was unusual in these parts. Probably of immigrant descent. He had an identical, button nosed, amber eyed appearance that he seemed to share with the older girl who was sitting with him. Kazu guessed that these two were siblings and they eerily reminded him of himself and his older sister.

They seemed to be living in the most dirt poor of conditions, with torn clothing that was already in pathetic conditions.

He glanced down at the very inviting snack in his hand and back at the little children and sighed as he made up his mind. He could always go back to his sister for food(even though he detested having to be a burden on her). But these children needed the bread a lot more than he did.

The girl realized what Kazu was doing and gasped, grabbing her brother and hugging the protesting boy close to her . She looked to be at least twelve, so she had to be mature to some extent.

"Hey! Hey.. Don't worry. It's alright. I'm not gonna hurt ya. ", Kazu whispered reassuringly as he knelt down next to them , in their shady spot under the seafood restaurant alleyway exit.

"Here,", Kazu continued, holding out the snack to the children. "You guys look like you need it a lot more than I do.".

Seeing what he was doing, the boy wasted no time as he snatched the bread and pack of chips out of Kazu's hand and began wolfing down on it . The sixteen year old the looked on , a little startled as the boy's older sister's face lit up in happiness.

"Thank you!", she wheezed weakly a toothy grin of gratitude plastered across her face. Kazu could tell she was suffering more than the boy, probably because she had been giving him her share of whatever food they got. Poor girl.

"Enjoy the meal.", Kazu smiled as he got up and walked away, leaving the two street urchins chomping down on bread like it was a birthday cake.

* * *

The palace yards , one of the few pieces of architecture in the city that still stayed the same as the olden days, glimmered under the mid morning sun as the rays of sunlight bounced off the blades of grass that covered the grounds.

A small family of turtle ducks quaintly swam in the little pond nearby as the royal guards ran regular patrols over the yards, marching in pairs , wearing their shiny silvery helmets and their crimson red uniforms and metal sheathing over their chests.

Two girls sat under the shade of the giant cedar-oak tree in the yard, engaged in a game of Pai-sho.

"Hmmm.. Clever move...", Mariko mumbled with her hand on her chin, her brows furrowed in deep thought as she sat across a pai-sho board , caught in the middle of a game.

The Twenty year old young woman shared looks that were strikingly similar with her younger brother, from her jet black hair, to her amber golden eyes and her very lean figure.

Mariko worked in the fire nation Royal Palace as the personal assistant to the fire nation's younger fire princess Maya, though the princess herself considered Mariko as more of a friend than anything else as she had been Maya's playmate during their childhood days when the orphaned siblings had been brought to the palace by some mysterious benefactor.

Mariko had her straight hair tied up into a tight top knot on her head and her bangs fell sideways across her face, from the left to the right, with one eyebrow hidden from view behind the strands of black hair. Her long nose buttoned out at the tip, as did Kazu's own and they shared the habit of biting their lower lip whenever they were deep in thought.

Mariko wrinkled her slightly freckled cheeks as she tried to work out a move to counter that of the Princess's .

The fire nation staff's crimson, button down shirt and skirt were wrapped around her body, and if she was being honest with herself, she rather liked the uniform, because it gave her a sense of official entitlement to something, as in contrast to her brother, who despised the thought of uniforms or anything close to it.

Mariko caught her breath and extended a hand out to shift one tile on the pai-sho board before shaking her head and returning to her earlier position.

"You know, I think my pet sloth-bear moves faster than you do, Mari..", Fire princess Maya chuckled.

Both girls were sat on a bronze table and bench, located in the middle of the granite floored courtyard, towards the eastern entrance of the fire palace.

Princess Maya was a rather quirky looking young princess and did not possess any of the ego that one would assume someone in her position to have. She was rather friendly with the royal staff and was a favorite among children of the local orphanages whenever she accompanied her father, Fire Lord Zuroh on charitable events.

The princess was slightly shorter than Mariko and her jet black hair and bright amber eyes were a distinct feature of her bloodline which could be traced all the way back to Fire Lord Zuko.

Her facial features were slightly more angular than that of her friend's and her bright red lips were the most eyecatching feature of Maya's face. She had her hair tied into a single tight braid that fell across her left shoulder, with bangs pulled upward , exposing her forehead to the fullest.

She was a sight for many of the sons of the lords and ministers but the naive nineteen year old princess was oblivious to the attention she attracted.

Maya groaned and stretched out her hands impatiently as the crimson royal robes draped backwards off her arms.

Mariko smirked and put her finger up to her lips. "Pai-sho is a game out strategy, patience and chance. One must know their opponent good enough if they are to win. ", she said with an attempt at a very ancient sounding and wise voice.

"Where'd you learn all that mumbo jumbo?", Maya chortled incredulously .

"Let's just say I've been spending a lot of time reading books by Sage Rajhan for some time. ", Mariko said, with an incredulous look on her face.

"Yeah. You spend time with that old spider monkey instead of me, the one girl who's been with you through thick and thin. ", Maya chided, forcing an exaggerated betrayed expression.

"Maya. You know I love you, but he's my fire bending master. There's a difference. ", Mariko remarked, pouting at the fire princess.

"Yeah. Difference being that you'd rather spend your free time seating it out in front of an old man than goofing around with me.", Maya muttered.

"Princess. We can't be goofing around like we used to . What will your possible suitors think if they see your...activities?", Mariko interjected.

"Right. it's not like I care about any suitors anyway.", Maya mumbled with a chuckle.

Just then, both of them heard a scuffle from the palace gates and spun around to see what was happening. Both girls caught sight of the familiar figure of Mariko's younger brother arguing with a palace guard. He had a satchel slung over his shoulder and Mariko instantly knew he did not own this particular couldn't believe it. He was stealing again?

"Excuse me. ", She whispered to her friend before hauling herself up to walk towards her brother.

Kazu raised his eyebrows slightly with a half grin as he spotted his big sister marching towards him with a glare, no doubt going to ask him about the satchel that hung around his neck.

"So.. what's up?", he asked nonchalantly.

"Where did you get that bag?", his sister huffed, going straight to the point.

Kazu pursed his lips and rolled his eyes. Ever since the two of them had been orphaned by some freak accident sixteen years ago, Mariko had assumed the role of his mother, from caring for him as a baby(though she was only four years elder than him), to working in the palace to support the both of them .

"Relax!", Kazu groaned, cracking his knuckled with the palm of his other hand .

"This thing belonged to some Agni Kais that I happened to come across today morning. Don't worry. I'll give it back to them with a sorry note first thing after breakfast. ", Kazu joked , striding forward as his sister followed him, not letting the sixteen year old out of her sight.

"Food? I thought you were ..how did you put it?... _your own man_? You didn't need my help anymore? ", Mariko chided with a chuckle.

Her brother didn't like depending on her for his survival and he rarely asked her for any help, though she would be happy to oblige. When he did ask for help, it was something rather desperate.

"Sheesh. If ya don't want me to eat just say the word and I'll be out of your hair!", Kazu groaned as he spun on his heel to march back out. Mariko caught a hold of his shoulder and stopped at him, she let out a sigh.

"Go on to my dorm. I think I've got some spare bread loaves and some leechi juice. But make sure you clean yourself up afterwards. ", Mariko reminded him as he waved a hand at her.

" Yeah. Yeah. I got it. Now get back to whatever gossiping you were doing . ", he grumbled before he turned and walked off their dormitory.

* * *

Kazu headed down the corridor through the servant's quarters towards the familiar door of their dorm. Well, mainly his sister's dorm. He pushed the silvery painted door open and headed inside to the room where the rays of sun managed to peek in through the curtains drawn over the windows.

As he dropped the bag on the floor and walked in, he caught a glimpse of their room. Mariko's bed was neatly made and all her belongings were placed in order. His own bed , on the other hand, lay crumpled with sheets thrown around just like he had left it over four night ago, when he had a quarrel with his sister about something silly and had stormed out the dorm.

Making his way to the tiny kitchen in the dorm, he pulled open the refridgerator and picked up the bottle of greenish juice sitting on the top tier in a plastic bottle. Then he picked up the loaf of bred lying on the kitchen slab, grabbed a wad of Corn cheese and headed towards the tiny dining table , which was only separated from the tiny kitchen area by a single bluish wall.

He sat down on the chair, and placed the food items on the rickety wooden table, rubbing his hands hungrily.

"Hmm...Let's see..Loaves of bread? Check. Leechi Juice? Check. And extra sweets that she might get mad at if she found out that I ate em? check. Alrighty then. Let's dig in!", Kazu said rather enthusiastically , wolfing down the bread loaves in his hunger.

/

After his breakfast, for which his stomach thanked him for, he grabbed the sweets from the table and switched off the lights, simultaneously extinguishing the single torch in the corridor outside as he headed out, walking back to the palace yards to find his sister standing up with a stoic pose, along with Princess Maya, deep in some sort of serious conversation with Minister Zhang, one of the Fire Lord's ministers.

It was a rather concerned expression on his sister's face that greeted him when he flashed her a toothy grin. Seeing the minister run his eyes down and up , as if sizing Kazu up, Kazu threw his hands up into the air like a criminal caught red handed.

"I didn't do anything!", he immediately squirmed.

"Then you have no reason to take fright. The fire lord wishes you go to his study. Fire Sage Gao is in our presence and has some matter in regards to you. So I pray you do not do anything reckless in front of the fire is an esteemed guest and an old acquaintance with not just Fire Lord Zuroh, but only Lord Iroh before him. ", Minister Zhang said in an unfocused voice.

"Who's Fire Sage Gao? And why does the Fire Lord want to see me of all people?", Kazu squeaked, alarmed.

Zhang let out a distressed sigh. "That I do not know. The Fire Lord did not inform me. Make not keep him waiting. It is disrespectful. ", Zhang said, shooing him off.

"Just go and see what my father wants. It's just his title that is intimidating. He's usually a reasonable man,unless you touch his favorite battle sword. That's the giant sword made of kilowog ivory on his right hand wall. You'll know it when you see it. ", Maya joked before quieting down under a glare from the minister, who considered Maya's sister, crown Princess Ursa to be the more mature of the two.

Giving his sister one last reproachful look, Kazuhiko slid the satchel off his shoulder and handed the bag to her.

Fearing the worst, he swallowed and walked down the marbles corridor towards the Fire Lord's study , an part of the ornate palace he had never visited before in his sixteen years of living there.

* * *

At the doorstep of the seven foot golden doors of the Fire lord's personal study, Kazuhiko gulped and felt his body perspire as the nervous feeling crept up his face, heating it. He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh.

He had never been invited to the Fire Lord's study , he hadn't even been acknowledged by the ruler before. He must have really stepped over some line for the Fire Lord to personally have a chat with him.

He stepped forth and knocked on the marble door knob three times. The voice of the Fire Lord spoke through the wooden seven feet tall oaken doors.

"Come in. ".

Turning the brass knob, the sixteen year old walked in , only to have himself blinded by the brightness of the light emanating from within the spacious room.

Silky cloth lined the walls as decoration, bearing the Fire nation Insignia on it. To the left, were what appeared to be statues of the fire god Agni, surrounded by a wall of flames. Flaming hydrangeas lined up the four tables that sat in the corners of the , everything in the room had some sort of relation with the element of fire. It was the Fire Lord's study. What was one supposed to expect?

The fresh scent of burning cinder wafted through the air as Kazu looked up at the mural which depicted events from the battle that ended the hundred year war. His eyes grew wide in wonder.

This room was obviously nowhere near as large as the royal throne room, which Kazu had seen after sneaking into back when he was eleven, but this room was a lot larger than the average common room,if one could compare them.

He heard the faint clearing of a throat and he looked ahead to meet eyes with the source of the noise.

Fire Lord Zuroh sat behind the seven foot long firewood table which had papers and documents stacked up in three to four piles.

The Fire lord's long black tresses with greying patches in them was tied back into a tight top knot atop his head and his grey matted beard was tied into a single braid at the tip with a rather elaborately constructed ring.

He eyed Kazu with his piercing ambers as he laid his golden framed reading glasses down as he stood up, wrapped in the armored royal robes and chest plate , in all his fire nation glory.

Kazu immediately clapped his fist with the palm of his hand out in front of his chest and he bowed respectfully with a rigid back. The Fire Lord nodded in acknolwedgement.

"Nice morning isn't it?", Zuroh remarked suddenly, shifting through his papers, catching Kazuhiko by surprise.

Without any further provocation, all of Kazu's resolve to lie to the fire lord crumbled around him and he buckled humorously.

"I'm so sorry, Lord .. For any disturbance I may have caused you. I swear, I didn't mean anything . Please don't take this out on my sister. She had nothing to do with me or Agni kais!", Kazu blurted out, imploring to the Fire Lord.

For a moment, the middle aged Fire Lord blinked, confused as to what the young fire bender was yammering about. Then he raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"Agni Kais? What're you talking about? ", Zuroh scoffed, stroking his beard simultaneously.

Kazu blinked twice. Then it hit him. The Fire Lord didn't know any thing about the agni kais and that was not why he had been called up here.

"Uhm..Nothing, your highness.",Kazu mumbled, slightly embarrassed.

It was not often that he was face to face with the fire lord, despite living in the palace grounds all his life since his sister was a staff at the palace. He made it a point to act just like his sister had taught him all those years ago.

He was quite surprised when he heard a light chuckle from the Fire Lord.

"What I have summoned you here for is an entirely different reason. ", Zuroh said, beaming slightly. Kazu stood, confused, scratching his head.

Then, all of a sudden, a raspy, weak sounding voice spoke up from behind him ,making him let out a small shriek as he jumped and stepped back.

"Good morning, young one. ", it said.

The voice belonged to a very ancient looking man , his bones almost sticking out through his skin and wispy strands of his beard ran to his belt buckle. He wore a long flowing crimson robe that fitted loosely around his body and a matching hat that was rather sturdy looking and stood up way past his head, shaped distinctly in the fire nation insignia.

Behind him, in the shadows was another man, who seemed to bear a slightly more disapproving look on his face for some reason.

The man's greying hair was tied back into a tight ponytail and his pointy white beard flowed to the middle of the torso. He wore similar loose fitting robes with a bit more embroidery to it and also he wore a more modern suit underneath this long robe. He seemed to be at least twenty years older than the Fire Lord himself.

Then, there were a few more, at least four more similarly older people, one woman and three men, standing side by side behind the desk. They wore a navy blue sort of uniform that flowed around their bodies, with a white chest dressing that fastened around their neck and fell around their shoulders.

Kazu had not idea who these people were or what they wanted.

Kazuhiko bowed to all of them anyway. Better safe than sorry. And he had no idea what they had to do with him.

It was then that he noticed that the older man carried a medium sized wooden chest with a bronze lock on it. This perked up his curiosity as he wondered what it could possibly be.

"Greetings, young man. I am Fire Sage Gao. I come from the fire temple for the northern provinces. ", the ancient looking man in the crimson robes wheezed .

He then turned to the man accompanying him. "And this is-", he began before the very unpleasant looking man scowled and held up his hand.

It was then that Kazu's eyes caught sight of a long age old scar on his left arm, running from his fingertips to his elbow, and the scar discolored his arm, giving it an apparently permanent pinkish hue.

"He can know who I am when it is done. ", he gruffed. Kazu had the immediate impression that this seventy something looking man, whoever he was, was rather serious and grumpy, for whatever reason.

The Fire sage chuckled and turned to Kazu to see the boy bow respectfully to him. It was not everyday that Kazu met a fire sage.

"We do not require much of your time. We know what an important man you must be, young one. ", the fire sage whispered with a twinkle in his eyes that appeared to pierce into Kazu's soul, as if it were seeing his darkest secrets.

Kazu chuckled awkwardly, not sure what the man meant, rubbing the back of his head.

Without another word, the fire sage sat down on the ground right in front of Kazu, prompting Kazu to almost leap back in awkwardness . What was he doing?

Luckily, all he did was set the chest he had carried on the ground in front of him, unlock it, and turn it around so that the catch of the chest faced Kazu.

"Please take a seat.".

Kazu gulped slowly and sat down, nervously perspiring as his head was trying to vigorously figure out what was going on. He was in a room with the Fire Lord and some older people dressed in funny clothing and they wanted him to open some mystical old chest?

No sooner when Kazu had sat down, the fire sage twirled his hands around in a clockwise motion out in front of him, creating a steady ring of flame that amazed Kazu. He had never known one could fire bend like that. Kazu had always thought fire bending involved agility and raw man made the flames dance for him.

The fire sage then murmured some incantations that Kazu could not pick up on before he slowly drew his breath in, encasing the swirling ring of fire within his hands before he blew into it again, blowing black smoke out of the other end of his clasped hands and it engulfed Kazu, forcing him to cough and wave his hand to clear the smoke from the vicinity of his nostrils.

The other man who came with the fire sage gave Kazu a disapproving look as the teenager coughed before turning away.

"Pick whatever object you find appeals to you. ", the fire sage's voice wheezed, bringing Kazu out from the depths of his inner thoughts.

Kazu nodded solemnly and proceeded to drop his gaze to the chest lying open in front of him.

The box contained various strange items indeed.

There were many artifacts and scrolls dating back over two hundred years, from the looks of it. There were a few metal bending scrolls from the Biefong clan. He recognized their family crest.

Then there was an air bison whistle. Kazu had always wanted an air bison but only his sister ever knew about his secret desire for one. It was common knowledge that only an air bender could train an air bison, which was a bummer really.

He scratched his shoulder and took in a large intake of breath to get his restless mind to focus.

As his eyes ran over the contents yet again, something caught his eye.

This thing held no value to him and he knew he couldn't use it for games or anything.

It was a navy blue water tribe betrothal necklace with distinct moon designs etched into the whitish circular wooden centerpiece. He didn't know why but it felt really familiar to him, but he was getting a bit freaked out, since he knew he had never seen the thing before in his odd sense gripped him,beckoning him forward.

Whatever the sensation of familiarity was, his hand was prompted and before he could hold himself back, he reached out and grabbed the betrothal necklace from the other objects, feeling slightly awkward since he knew the others were watching him and would probably think of him stupidly .

Expecting raised eyebrows, he looked up but was surprised to see the wide eyed expressions all the people in the room,except for the old fire sage, his grey haired moody companion and the fire lord.

"Wha...what happened?", Kazu mumbled, scratching his head. The fire sage chuckled as he reached over and picked up the betrothal necklace.

"Why did you pick this item?", the sage asked. Kazu let out an awkward chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeeeahh..heh-heh...I'm not so sure about that one. I just felt like it belonged to me...except...I know that I've never seen It before. It's...really hard to explain. ". The sage offered him a warm smile.

"This betrothal necklace once belonged to Avatar Korra . This is one of the few relics only the Avatar would have recognized from their past lives. ", the sage said abruptly, confusing Kazu to the point where he had to scratch his head wildly, not following what the sage was saying.

"I'm sorry.. Where are you going with this?", he asked apprehensively.

To his shock and confusion, the sage set the necklace back into the box and touched the palm of his hand with the fist of his other hand, bowing deeply to the sixteen year old boy, who was beyond confused right now. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the men and woman who had come with the Fire Sage copy his movement. What really threw him off balance was when the Fire Lord did the same action. What was happening?

As if to answer him, one of the men dressed in the blue robes spoke up, still in his bowing position.

"We are the white lotus. And It will be an honor to serve you... Avatar Kazuhiko. ".

Kazu let out a small shriek and he jumped up to his feet, with a shocked look written all over his face.

"W-what?", Kazu breathed, fearing the answer.

"You...Are the new Avatar", the sage replied again, this time meeting eyes with the young fire bender.

Now there was no denying what he had heard. No one was pulling his leg. If a fire sage said this, there was no other way to deny it.

"We will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning to the air temples to begin your airbending training. You may need to pack, but you will not need any worldly possessions.", another of the white lotus added with a smile, clearly having no clue of the turmoil of emotions going through Kazu's brain.

His chest rising and falling rapidly as his mind fogged up, the sixteen year old back pedaled and flung the door open to run outside.

No sooner had he opened it, he saw his sister and princess Maya standing outside the door, with their hands covering their mouths with a look of total shock on their faces. They were spying in on what was happening behind the closed doors . Before his sister could say anything, Kazuhiko shoved past her, marching out and down the hallway, out of sight.

"Was it something we said?", the white lotus member inquired, confused about this reaction.

"Give him time.", Sage Gao said calmly.

He knew how it would feel like. Being the avatar would mean that more likely than not , the boy's teenage years would be taken away since he would need to be prepared for the inevitable.

* * *

The cold evening winds sent a tickling sensation down his spine as he sat up on the rooftop of one of the shopping complexes, five blocks down from the fire nation palace. The blood red skies that lit up due to the setting sun cast an ominous shade over Kazuhiko's foreseeable future.

It had been five hours now since he had spoken to anyone, besides a local merchant from whom he bought his lunch. It had been five hours since the fire sage told him about who he was. And it was frightening.

' _You are the new Avatar' ,_ the voice echoed round in his head as the cold winter solstice winds blew his long bangs of his fore head. He clenched his jaw and hugged his torso to his knees, resting his chin on his knees, scouring the area up ahead gloomily with furrowed brows.

He didn't know what to say or think.

If they were pulling a joke on him, this was a bad way to do it.

You don't just abruptly come into someone's life and announce that they are someone as important as the Avatar. Sure he liked helping people, but that was it. He never wanted to go around sacrificing his life, helping people who would be less thankful . He wanted to live his life freely.

Then, the memory of the delighted looks on the young childrens' faces from earlier that day came to the forefront of his mind, slightly abating his anger. He did like helping people, whether as an avatar or not.

"So...what've you been upto?", a familiar female voice perked up, right behind him, almost scaring him to the point of him losing his balance and falling off the edge of the rooftop, where he was sitting.

Catching himself, he turned around to see the figure of his elder sister standing just three feet away from him, her arms crossed .

"Oh...nothing...just...just contemplating my place in the world...", Kazu remarked sarcastically, returning to his moody expression.

"Nice view, isn't it?", Mariko remarked, sitting down on the ledge next to him. Kazu grunted to show that he acknowledged her.

Both of them sat around for a few prolonged minutes in silence as the awkwardness crept in.

"So you wanna watch a pro bending match tonight? We can go to the local pub . I hear today's the big semi final. ", Mariko said with a hopeful smile, trying to cheer up her brother.

She knew how much he had tried to sneak in but was caught and kicked out every time by the owner since he was underage to enter such establishments. In the fire nation, the legal adult age was nineteen.

"Really?", Kazu mumbled, his face lighting up at the possibility . Mariko chuckled and nodded.

She then watched as his eyes suddenly froze , before his smile gradually fell and transformed into a frown.

"Thanks...but.. I can't...I'm not supposed to have any _worldly_ possessions, remember?", he mumbled scornfully.

"Why not ? I mean, I thought you've always wanted to-", Mariko began hopefully, before Kazu cut across her with an impatient look.

"Stop acting like everything's normal. You get to be normal! Well? Guess what?! Nothing will be normal ever again!", Kazu burst out, shooting a glare at his sister, who looked at her distressed brother with a wide eyed shocked face.

"Hey! I get that you're in one of you teenage tantrums right now, but that doesn't give you the right to take your anger out on me!", she remarked. Kazu pursed his lips and dropped his gaze , abashed.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to . ", he mumbled.

Mariko let out a sigh and ruffled his hair.

"Meh..It's alright, lil bro. Believe me or not, I think I had quite the teenage tantrums when I was your believe me, it's harder when you don't have an older sibling to yell at.", she said, her mind drifting off to a time when she didn't have to be the responsible one , well, at least until her brother snorted.

"What do you mean you _had_ the tantrums? You still do. ", he said, eyeing her mischievously.

She huffed and gave him an affronted glare, lightly punching him on the shoulder. "I do not! Take it back!" .

Kazu chortled as Mariko tickled him in the ribs . His sister , even though she could be a bit nagging sometimes, knew how to cheer him up. Even if he was forced to face the harsh reality that he was the Avatar.

But it didn't matter. He had already made up his mind.

* * *

The soothing luminescence of the moonlight crept across the grounds as the wind softly rustled the dry leaves of the cedar-grave tree that lined the palace compound, near the servant quarters. Nothing moved besides the vigilant guards the were doing their night rounds while a few of them, off duty, was watching he pro bending semi final on the televarrick. Security along the staff quarters were minimal either ways so it made his job easier.

A silent figure crept along in the shadows, not wanting to draw attention to himself. Kazu hid behind a pillar, edging just out around the corner of it, eyeing the lower wall , waiting for the right moment for running across the grounds and escaping the compound, which were under lock down in the paused and he waited.

He edged back and he accidentally stepped on a twig lying on the ground, which cracked under the pressure, alerting the passing guard that something was going on. Kazu bit his lip and tightened his limbs , sticking his arms close up to his body to avoid being found and he waited with baited breath.

The guard squinted his eyes and edged towards the pillar behind which he had heard the sound, drawing out a flame on his palm to light up the dark. Kazu's heart rate sped up exponentially as the footsteps of the guard drew closer and closer, to the point where it sounded like he was standing barely and inch away from the pillar.

Just then, much to Kazu's relief, an excited voice called out from the grounds.

"Hey Lee! C'mere! The Chun just scored a hattrick knockout!", one of the guards called out. The guard lost his attention and hurried off as Kazu sighed in relief.

That's right. The semi final. He really wanted to watch the match on the Televarrick. But what he was doing right now was more important to his future than watching some match which will probably replay again later on boradcast.

Kazu pursed his lips and poked his head out from behind the pillar, and when no one was in sight, he rubbed his hands and bolted for the low rising part of the compound wall.

He sprinted as silently as he could and leapt up from the ground with just a minor burst of flames from his feet as an extra booster to send him over the wall in a quick summersault.

He landed on the other side of the wall, on the paved walkways on his knees before getting up, shivering slightly in the cold winter breeze momentarily before taking off into the silent night, towards the Capital city ferry port .

* * *

"That will be forty Yuans. ", the beefy pot-bellied man standing at the ticket counter croaked.

Kazu dug his fists deep into the pockets of his pants , rummaging around for ten more Yuans. He was trying his luck by trying to buy himself a first class ticket on the millenia passenger barge but soon found out how costly the seat was. He could use fifty Yuans on food and supplies in the capital city market for a week. No wonder these snobbish ministers who visited the fire lord thought they could do anything. You could buy anything you wanted with money, from the looks of it.

Kazu bit his lips when his hands grasped at nothing but thin air in his pocket. He was going to have to hustle the counter man.

"Uhh...I...don't...have any money left...Think you could whip up a special deal for me , my man?", Kazu remarked with a toothy grin and wide eyes, hoping against hope that the man would let him in. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

"Sorry kid. But I got strict orders from up high. Da boss ain't gon be happy if he finds out I let a freeloader in. ", the husky man mumbled.

"Seriously? I can't even get in with the cargo deck?", Kazu said, pushing his luck. The man stood tall as ever, shaking his head.

"You could wait out here for the second class barge. It's only half an hour later from now. ", the man remarked .

Kazu's face drooped and his shoulder slouched as he swung his hands one eighty degrees in front of him, grabbing the twenty Yuans he had already given the man. He dragged his feet across the ground as he decided to sit in a corner and do the one thing everyone stereotyped a fire bender to do : Sulking.

* * *

Kazu groaned as he finished the last morsel of sandwiches his money could buy .He began picking some leftovers from the area in between his teeth with a toothpick, as he walked with his free hand dug into his pant pocket, strolling aimlessly through a nearby alley as he waited for the next ferry to arrive.

He passed by a quaint looking food joint , the only one still open at this hour.

Just then, Kazu heard the clear sound of the engine of a jeep rumbling and no sooner, a sturdy, future industries camo-mobile wheeled in past Kazu, almost knocking him over . The vehicle screeched to a halt in front of a small shop and four men leapt out, fists burning with flames. Two of them shot fire balls at the door, stomping it open as they ran in, ransacking the place.

A middle aged woman wearing dirty rags, the owner of the small shop, and her son , a ten year old by the looks of it, huddled in a corner as the bandits broke open the shelves and the money counter.

The thug crabbed a small wad of cash from the cash register and glared at the woman.

"Please! That is all we have! We have nothing else left! ", the woman cried , trying to implore to the crude men.

Behind the man, one of his partners, shot a fire ball at a wooden floorboard and the thing burst open, exposing bags of coins and valuables.

The man chuckled as he grabbed the sacks and slung them over his shoulder.

" _Now_ you have nothing left.", the man leered and turned to leave the small shop .

Just then, a flaming torrent shot towards the jeep, bursting it in flames.

As the flames evaporated, the men were lying on the ground, shielding their faces and looking around with disgruntled expression.

"What the-", the leader muttered as he scanned the area, trying to find the person who was stupid enough to interfere with them. Hie eyes bulged out in anger as they found the lone figure of a young boy, presumably a teenager, standing a ways off in a fire bending stance.

"Ay! What's the big idea punk?", the man called out in a raspy voice.

"Leave them alone. Pick on somebody your own size.", Kazu called out, sounding a lot braver than he had expected.

At this thought, the men exchanged snide glances.

"You mean...like you?", one of them called out, making Kazu eat his words.

His firebending may be reasonable to nick himself out of a tight spot, but these guys also packed a punch in the brawn department, an area in which Kazu severely lacked prowess in, being the skinny ,lean teenager he was.

"Oops...", he muttered, but there was no going back now. The men were already bounding forward , shooting fiery blasts at him in the darkness of the night. Thank Agni this was a deserted district, otherwise, Kazu would have been hauled in for the fourth time that month for a notice of public nuisance.

Without much of an option, Kazu spun on his heel in a complete one-hundred-eighty degree turn and shot a swirling fire ball at the men with enough force to separate them.

All of a sudden, he felt a warm breeze enter his vicinity and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a burning ball of yellow encroaching his face. With a grunt, he narrowly managed to evade the flames, ducking sideways and looked up to see a another bender, not much older than he was, standing with fumes of smoke emanating from his fists.

Without a second of thought, the sixteen year old punched out a torrent of hot flames at his attacker, meeting the guy squarely in his chest, blasting him over ten feet away.

"ARGHH!", he heard a coarse voice roar from behind him and he spun around just in time to spot a flaming fire ball being hurled at him by two out of five men.

With just enough time to spare, Kazu breathed in and spread his palms out wide, swirling the flame ball under his control in a millisecond before redirecting it back at the two men, striking them head on .

Kazu was never any good at firebending, according to their teacher at the palace , who considered Mariko's firebending much more potent. But Kazu could defend himself. And that was all he needed.

Kazu panted and roared in exhilaration as he leapt up, shooting a downpour of minute fire balls at the men, forcing them to cower or risk getting hit.

In a moment when the sixteen year old paused to take a breath, the burly gang leader roared and formed a seven foot tall wall of flames that edged towards Kazu, forcing him throw his arms out to try and control the wall. This guy had to be the strongest firebender Kazu had met so far from the group .

Lost in his thoughts, Kazu failed to notice one of the man creep up behind him and before he knew what was happening, the man shot out a powerful fire blast that made full contact with Kazu's spinal area, shooting the sixteen year old forward as he rolled around, panting, clutching his back in pain.

"You shouldn't have butted in other people's business, kid. ", the gang leader taunted as the remaining men walked up, encircling the boy lying on the ground.

Kazu felt a very rough palm enclose around his biceps as they hauled him up, to beat him up. On instinct, Kazuhiko leaned back forcing the man holding him onto his backfoot to maintain balance before he kicked both legs out in front of him, hoping to send a fire blast at the captors. But what he saw shocked him to his bone.

Instead of a ball of flames being shot out, the men felt a rumble in the ground beneath them and before anyone knew what was happening, the ground right next to where Kazu's feet had been cracked open and a jagged circular disk of rock and earth shot out, colliding head on with two of the remaining men, knocking them unconscious on the spot.

The mother and her son who was silently watching from the window of their shop gasped in shock as did Kazu, lying on the ground from the maneuver. What in Agni's name was that?

"What the...", the gang leader, the last remaining man standing, muttered with an utterly confused look written on his face.

"Did you just...earthbend?", he croaked, just as much shocked and confused as Kazu was.

Kazu didn't answer and instead, performed an upside down roundhouse kick with his palms planted firmly on the ground. This time, thankfully, it was a whip of flames that erupted out of his heels, knocking the man out from under his feet.

Kazu only dropped his firebending stance once he was sure that the men were not getting back up. As he panted and wiped his sweat, there was only one thing on his mind. He just earthbent. He couldn't help but feel excited and exhilarated at the possibilities it entailed but it also injected a hint of fear in him. This occurrance had just canceled out any possible counter argument he would have had about being the Avatar.

He, a firebender, had just earthbent.

* * *

Every one was tense ever since Mariko rushed in with the news that her brother had run off. Scared or for some other reason, nobody knew. But all they could do was hope that the guards found the boy soon .

The only person who seemed to be relaxed at the moment was the fire sage Gao, who sipped his morning tea with a pleasant smile on his face. To be honest, the man was getting on Mariko's nerves as she paced back and forth. How could a man look so peaceful when her little brother, who didn't know any better, had run off in the night?

The only thing that was keeping her down was her regard for his position and also when Princess Maya comforted her during one of her outbursts earlier that morning when the sage came in with a smile on his face, telling everyone what a wonderful morning it was. If she didn't have Maya, she didn't know what she would have done. Probably challenge the old man to an Agni kai or something. That's what fire benders usually did. Well, that's what they were stereotyped of doing in such situation anyway.

Suddenly, she felt a hand clasp around hers and squeeze it. With a gasp, she looked up to see Maya smiling warmly at her.

"Look. I'm not his sister but I think I've known him long enough to know that he's caused _a lot_ of trouble for the Agni once have they caught him. And they're the most notorious gang around these parts. I'm sure he's okay. ", the fire princess consoled her.

Mariko knew how lucky she was that the princess considered her a friend, even though by status, she was Maya's servant, nothing more.

Mariko opened up her mouth to thank her but she was interrupted when the seven foot tall metal doors banged open and a perspiring guard barged in, metal armor and all . He didn't say anything for a while except pant until the Fire lord cleared his throat.

"S-sir. Sorry for wasting your time. But.. the boy...He has returned. ".

As everyone(except the fire sage) stood in shocked silence, the sound of heels walking through the marble corridor made it's way into the room.

Click.

Click.

Click

Then, three people turned around the doorway and walked into the room. Two of them were royal guards, decked in their identical uniforms and they each stood on either side of the sixteen year old boy who had run away the night before.

Kazu had his head hung low, unable to meet anyone's eyes after running away from his responsibilities like that. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. And neither did anyone move or talk. No sound at all except the slow click, clock of the royal clock that hung in some corner of the room.

Finally ,deeming it awkward to just stand there with his head hung low all day, Kazu sighed and lifted his head up to meet the sight of all those eyes that zeroed in on him.

The fire lord nodded for his guards to leave. The two men bowed respectfully and exited the room. Kazu gulped as he saw his sister slowly trudge toward him, with a dazed expression.

Mariko felt her body getting heavier with every step. One . Two .Three

There, she was within five feet's length of her little brother when she paused and stared at him.

Kazu quivered as his sister's death stare bore down on him like a hack saw. When his sister stepped in within three feet of him, he took in a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak.

But the next thing he knew, he was looking left, right at the figures of the chuckling Fire Sage and his entourage who came with him.

He felt a sharp stinging sensation right on his cheek and felt the remnants of the force with which his sister had slapped him. The pain came a bit late.

"OW! What was that for?! I ran away but that-", he began complaining but he wasn't able to finish his sentence as her arms wrapped around him and pulled him into a tight, bone crunching hug.

The warmth he felt was like no other. He could just stand in the comfort all day.

But then his brain prodded his senses awake and he realized that they were in a room full of people and how bad this would be for his reputation.

Pulling away with all his might , he stepped back to give his sister a smile, though it still hurt where she had slapped him senseless. His sister returned the smile before moving in with a threatening glare and whispered to him.

"Run away like that again and I'll break your bones , got that ?". Kazu let out a shocked squeal and jumped back. Sometimes his sister was maniacal enough to be a serial killer.

He then clenched his teeth and walked over to where the fire lord, the fire sage, the representatives of the white lotus and the unknown old fire bender were standing, onlooking the scene.

Kazu bowed to all of them, showing his respect.

"I'm sorry for running away. I was scared of being ..the avatar because of the responsibility it entitles...But..I like helping people...So... I don't think I'm ready to be the...Avatar yet..But I will try... And I am ready to help people in any way I can. ", he said in a calm tone, surprising his sister, along with everyone else who always knew Kazu to be cheeky and energetic all the time.

Not mature and composed. Even the Fire lord seemed surprised. The fire sage chuckled.

"Took you long enough. So.. are you ready to begin your training?", he wheezed. Kazu grinned in a half smile.

"I'll get to learn some cool lavabending , right?", he exclaimed excitedly, giving the amused Fire Sage a toothy grin. Behind them, Mariko pursed her lips and slapped a palm to her face at her brother's immature behavior. The world was doomed if he was the Avatar.

"And..there's the stupid..", she mumbled .

* * *

 **And so ends the first episode of Book One. I will try and make it as close as possible to how it would've been like in the TV show. Hope you guys enjoy reading this!**

 **As mentioned above, any suggestions and constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks for reading!**

 **Until next time, Avatar,Yip-Yip!**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Western Air Temple

_Reply to comments-_

VIEWS: Yes and no. He will travel between places to learn the elements but he won't be mastering an entire element as Aang was shown to be in the airbender series. I'm planning on having him move between places and settings for each book with book one located in the air temple.

* * *

 **Legend Of Korra and all other 'Avatar'** **related Material are owned by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko**

 **BOOK ONE : ACCEPTANCE**

Chapter Two - The Western Air Temple

* * *

 _Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring peace and balance to the world._

* * *

"I never thought I'd say this but ...I'm gonna miss your nagging, sis...", Kazu muttered as he hugged his sister as he bid her goodbye . He was heading to the western air temple to begin his airbending training and according to the white lotus members who had come , it was best if his sister didn't accompany them , for she would prove to be a distraction to the Avatar from his studies.

Mariko let out a small chuckle of satisfaction as he buried his face in her hair during the embrace. He was almost as tall as she was, just a few inches shorter than her. This was the closest Kazuhiko had come to telling her 'I love you' without embarrassing himself.

Mariko ruffled his hair after letting go, drawing a scowl on Kazu's face as she did so. She knew how highly he thought about his ,apparently stylish, hairdo which just stuck up in unruly directions. She rolled her eyes .

"Hey, It's not like we won't be seeing each other again or anything. Besides, from what I hear, the Western Air Temple Is based on the outskirts of Beltush. ", Mariko remarked.

Beltush was one of the relatively newly built cities that served as a trading port after the Earth Empire had fallen. Though not many Earthbenders liked to speak about it, the Great Uniter's earth empire had brought down any space for innovation, since nothing could be done without the dictator's approval. So her defeat at the hands of Avatar Korra had been a blessing in many forms, one of which was an infrastructural coalition between the world's leading conglomerates to help rebuild the Earth Nation.

"I've put some lentil sandwiches in you satchel in case you get hungry. ", Mariko remarked, stuffing a wrapped parcel into his satchel.

Princess Maya caught sight of this and began to giggle, because Mariko was acting the way a mother did. Kazu , having noticed the fire princess laughing at him, felt his cheeks turn bright pink in embarrassment and he tried to shrug off his big sister.

" Okay. Okay.. Just give me the sandwiches. I've got it, _mom._ ", he remarked sarcastically. Mariko let him take the parcel and placed her hands on her hips, cocking her eyebrows.

Just when she was about to reprimand him, the loud, unmissable annoying horn of the giant metallic airship was rung , catching everyone's attention.

"All aboard!", the captain boomed from his station, four floors above the main deck of the Airship.

One of the many things Kazu was really excited for on this trip was getting to travel by an airship, which was usually reserved for the rich orphaned street rat like him could never even dream of actually riding one of them . So there was no way he was going to skip out on getting to travel on a Class A airship and see the world from a vantage point he had never seen skies.

Kazu grabbed his rucksack and bolted up the metal ladders and onto the main deck, before he found his way to the railing, where he could see his sister and the others waving, almost two floors below in height.

Wow this thing was huge.

Kazu grabbed onto the edge of the ice cold white metal railing of the airship and waved at his sister wildly, knowing that it would be months before he saw her again.

"Don't forget to call me on the temple telephone when you get there!", Mariko called out as she waved, forcing Kazu to roll his yes in disdain.

"And please listen to what the elders tell you! You can't just do whatever you please now, remember that!",she yelled again as the ship gained in height.

As he waved, he found that the ship had already left port and the others had begun to return back to their daily lives, except for his sister, a few of his street friends and the younger Princess Maya.

The docking ladders were drawn up and slowly, the airship began to drift skywards at a gradual pace. Kazu could feel the temperature of the air around him grow colder by the second.

As he looked down, the figures of his sister and the others were growing smaller and smaller until they were the size of ants.

Then, the Fire Nation was going. Going. Gone.

It was then that the reality of the situation hit him. This was the first time he was journeying anywhere without his sister nagging him.

Now, for the first time, he was alone. A sense of dread engulfed him but a small glimmer of excitement also ravaged inside him; the excitement of seeing the other lands for the first time in his life.

A wide grin spread on his face as he turned and looked around at the various aspects of the giant airship.

* * *

The airship they were traveling by was a large, mostly metallic, zepplin-like aerial vehicle, with a pointy front bow that seemed to be cut through the atmosphere, reducing air resistance during it's flight, allowing them to travel faster.

The large vessel seemed to be constructed primarily from metal , except for it's posh interior designing . It employed multiple propellers fixed at various strategic points along the airship's outer frame to keep it in flight. It was a lot more modern than any of the traditional Royal airships Kazu had seen back in the Fire nation.

What was most impressive about the aerial vehicle, apart from it's vastly modern appearance, was it's sheer size. It was so vast, that at least seven air bison could ride the vessel comfortably on it's wooden deck and it would still have no effect on air drag or flight path.

And this was just the outer appearance. The captain control room was built atop the common room towards the end of the ship. It was easily the smallest room on the ship, except for maybe the the room's inferior size, it was perhaps the most well equipped room throughout the entire ship, with radio sensors, sonars, radio transmitters and the lot.

Inside the luxurious common room of the airship, which could be entered from the main wooden deck by moving up a flight of lightweight metal stairs, was the most stylishly furnished room that Kazu had ever seen.

The common room was split into two by a sliding metal door that could be controlled by a metalbender guard who was posted outside.

Kazu flashed the guard on duty a toothy grin as the sixteen year old trudged in .

Inside the main room, in the spot middle, was a rectangular metallic table with seven wooden chairs neatly lined along ,ready for someone to sit in. There was an insignia that was lightly etched into the metallic table surface and on the slightly domed ceiling of the room. Kazu thought he had seen that sign somewhere and then, with a start, remembered it as the logo of Future Industries, one of the world's leading technology giants.

There was a separate landing towards the south side of the room, which led to a widely spaced glass window pane that was large enough that it was fitted from the floor to almost six feet up. And through this large glass pane, you could get a clear view of the landscape below.

If kazu didn't have an air temple to get to, he wouldn't have minded calling this place his home. It was that nice.

Once inside, the stoic Mako turned to Kazu and the others.

"I'm going to have a word with the captain. ", he rasped and proceeded to walk through a separate silvery door that led to a flight of stairs downwards, into a different room. Kazu couldn't be more happier than having his grumpy aura leave the room.

As the door clicked shut behind Mako, Kazu flung his rucksack across the floor and fell down on one of the couches located near an open glass window, ready to take a nice long nap.

Well, that was his plan initially, until a certain wispy old fire sage cocked his head directly above Kazu's own, blocking the airflow from the open window next to him.

"What do you think you're doing?", he said in a quiet but amused voice. Kazu cocked an eyebrow.

"Well..I thought that since we're not reaching the temple for another whole lotta hours, I might as well get some sleep. ", Kazu mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

Fire Sage Gao chuckled merrily , as if Kazu had just told him a delightful joke.

"Since we won't be getting off this ship anytime soon, how about a little sparring session? Come with me. ", he said nonchalantly , walking off, leaving Kazu blinking rapidly in a dumbfounded expression. The sixteen year old groaned and picked himself up and made to follow the old man.

/

They moved back out onto the spacious wooden deck outside, where there was ample space for a sparring session. The blue skies around them cast a calming sensation over the place, and that, coupled with the cooling breeze of the altitude combined for a situation that was perfect for a relaxing sleep. But Kazu was not so lucky to enjoy that. was supposed to spar with an old man, whom, Kazu figured, could beat easily.

"Okay. So.. How exactly are we gonna train any of the other elements? Since..you know...You're just a firebender..I mean no disrespect,sir. ", Kazu began awkwardly, rubbing his palms to heat them up. Gaochuckled merrily .

"Oh. Do not worry. I am not here to teach you the other elements. I am going to test your bending. ", Gao croaked. Kazu folded his arms and cocked an eyebrow incredulously.

"Listen. I think I'm a pretty good firebender if I do say so myself. I can handle myself. I don't think I need any more training in that department. ".

"Then a sparring match would be of no trouble then?", Gao smiled.

"Um..sure..I..guess not..", Kazu said vaguely, raising his arms up into a firebending stance.

He drew his feet wide apart and took in a deep breath,for a major part of firebending, from what he had seen during the royal classes that Princess Maya and Princess Ursa used to attend, was the aspect of controlling one's breath.

"When you are ready.", Gao called out, himself drawing into another stance that Kazu had not seen before.

It was similar to the one he had taken, but it was marginally different as well.

With a smirk of arrogance, Kazu leapt into action, bursting forth with a powerful shot of fiery flames that erupted out of his heel as he kicked his leg out in front of him . He watched as the burst of angry flames raced towards Gao.

When the ball of flames was merely inches away from the fire sage's reach, the old man turned his heel and bent over low, simply ducking right out from underneath the flames.

Dumbfounded at the man's agility, Kazu blinked twice stupidly before shaking himself out of the stupor.

Kazu then shot out a barrage of fireballs from his fists, running circles around Gao while the old firebender merely stood there, calm as ever, dodging the flames with relative ease.

As a retaliation to Kazu's fireballs, Gao summoned up a solid fall of flame that encircled him in a tube before it slowly edged out, expanding forward, reducing the area Kazu had to run around. But Kazu was a pretty good firebender, even though Zahan didn't tell the boy this, for not any firebender could have the thinking capacity to utilize an offense into a defense.

Kazu, much to Gao's fascination, reached out into the wall of flame and bent out a huge ball of fire. He then spun around mid jump, gaining enough momentum to propel the ball forward. Gao was left to drop his wall of flame in order to join his palms out in front of him, pointed forward like a knife as he cut straight through the flames.

Slightly taken aback at such an old man possessing such quick reflexes, Kazu stomped his foot forward, spinning a hundred and eighty degrees on the spot on one foot, sending out a whip of flames from his other foot at the old man.

This acted as a distraction as Kazu shifted his weight leftward . He then shot out a a stream of flames, funneling rapidly forward at Gao. Now, there was flames hurling at him from two different directions. There was no way the old man could escape this. But how wrong Kazu was.

Before the sixteen year old knew what was happening, Gao performed some sort of strange firebending form, flicking his wrists back and forth and in a rapid motion, and simultaneously , the stream of flames Kazu was shooting evaporated to mere black smoke .

The man had somehow evaporated the flames from the source, which shocked Kazu. How could a bender do that?

Gao then proceeded to swirl his wrists in a twirling fashion before stomping forward and punching out a fiery blast that shot towards Kazu's ankles.

The sixteen year old managed to flip out over the blast just in time but as he looked up, his smile was wiped off his face as he saw a flaming torrent shooting towards him. In a matter of a second, the fiery torrent that Gao had shot out met Kazu squarely in the chest, knocking him down with a thud, onto the wooden deck.

Kazu lay flat on his back, facing the blue skies above, with a blank look on his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the old Fire Sage chuckling merrily as he exhaled, bringing his chi flow under control.

"What in Agni's name just happened?", Kazu blurted out in disbelief as he picked himself up with a groan. He had not expected to get beat by an old man so fast. This surely put a damper on his pride.

"I believe I just kicked your butt in a sparring match.", the old man chuckled, leaving Kazu baffled.

For a man Kazu guessed to be in his eighties, the guy was pretty spry. Not not mention he did not seem to possess the seriousness of all his other companions(Mako and the white lotus members).

"But how did you that? You're so old!", Kazu blurted out without thinking how rude it sounded. He immediately bit his tongue but to his confusion, the Fire Sage did not take it too seriously, seeing as he was grinning with pursed lips at the sixteen year old.

"Age is just a number. And I just proved that you still have a ways to go before you can truly say that you have mastered firebending. And...let me know when you want to spar again.I enjoyed kicking your butt !", Gao exclaimed with a merry chuckle , leaving Kazu astonished at the man's lack of seriousness.

* * *

It had been fifteen hours into their journey and Kazuhiko was bored out of his skin.

He had spent a whole lot of time gazing out into the vast expanse below them, just out over the railing . He had noticed the minute change in landscape, with the area growing more and more hilly in comparison to the flat areas of land that he was used to back in the Fire nation.

From the airship, he could also see the distinct increase spirit wilds, casting a shade of green over the landscape. The wilds was the only thing for miles from what Kazu could see.

Kazu spent the other half of his hours either sleeping or playing pai sho with Sage Gao, since there was nothing else to do on the giant airship. He had already explored a majority of the ship and had met with the crew piloting the ship.

Kazu sat on the ceiling of the common room, hugging his knees to his chest as he rested his chin on his knee, gazing over the horizon with the strong winds whipping at his face.

He had honestly thought that this trip would have been a lot more exciting. So far, the only thing exciting he had seen was a herd of giant coyfish surfacing on the waters over three hours ago when they were flying over the seas. Now the vast hilly ridges of the outskirts of the western Earth kingdom territory shadowed them.

Honestly though, was he even sure that he really _was_ the Avatar? For all he knew, that accident could have been just that, an accident and he hadn't really done any earthbending there. And even though the old people he was riding this vessel with were members of the white lotus, they were still people. And People made mistakes. What were the odds that he, a street rat was someone as important as the Avatar?

As he sat there, lost in thought, a glint of metal glared at his eyes, catching his attention . Kazu threw up his hands, blocking the irritating glare and squinted his eyes, looking for the source.

With a gasp, he saw it .

The high rising towers and metal skyscrapers of the metro city of Beltush. It was built as a trading port for passing by cargo airships, since no other civilization neighbored the city for another thousand miles. It really was an oasis in the middle of nowhere. It was not as modern as Republic city or as high-tech as Zaofu was, as people had told, but it was near close.

With a grunt, he leapt of his pedestal .

With a thud, he landed hard on the main deck and bolted to the edge of the railing, leaning over the edge to get a better look of the city in the distance.

A wide, excited grin was plastered on his face.

He couldn't see all the details but he could definitely see the magnetic trams that ran through and out of the city, connecting the metro city to other ports along the kingdom, a product of Varrick Industries, one of the world's leading technology companies.

"Wow...",Kazu breathed , in amazement . It looked a lot more modern that the Fire nation Capital city, even from such a far away distance. Then, he suddenly heard the airship's bell gonging , signifying their stop for some reason.

Out of nowhere, he began to hear the low humming and cooing of some giant creature that he was not familiar with. He looked around wildly for the source in vain.

Then humongous shadows of some flying, furry creature , four of them, converged over the deck, blocking the sunlight from hitting the place where Kazu was standing. Turning around, he let out a small squeal of shock to see a huge, horned creature with creamy white fur , big brown eyes and some sort of tattoo of an arrow pointing downwards towards it's nose.

Air bison. Four of them.

These four giant creatures landed softly with a clunk and began to wriggle their snouts, sniffing around the place that seemed to smell foreign to them.

Perched atop them on spacious saddles were six men. Four of them sat atop the bison's head, steering them via the reins they held while two others had come along, sitting in the saddle of the Bison that had landed in the front .

As Kazu watched, the four men steering their bison swung their arms around diagonally in a clockwise motion, creating a cushion of air that they used to land softly on the ground in front of their bison.

Three of them were bald and sported beards of different styles while one of them displayed a whole head of chocolate brown hair, stuck in unkempt directions, clearly not combed at all. This person also seemed to be the youngest of the group, but only he, along with another of them, sported what Kazu distinctly identified as an Airbending master's tattoo.

They were definitely airbenders.

But where had they come from?

There was no air temple or anything that remotely looked like one anywhere in the horizon. The spirit wilds and forests surrounded them on the ground , with only Beltunsh visible in the horizon.

As Kazu watched, the two remaining men clambered down to the floor via a rope ladder that they swung off the bison's saddle, leading Kazu to guess that these were not airbenders, like the other four were. But they were bald and wore saffron robes, just like an airbender . So these had to be the air acolytes, the monks that followed the ways of the air nation, despite not being benders themselves.

Before either party could exchange any words, the door that lead to the common room of the airship swung open with an audible snap and Sage Gao , along with Master Mako and the other White Lotus members walked out, all of them in their formal attire now.

"Master Temujin.", Gao said with a cheery tone as he made his way to the most refined airbender amongst them.

The man, Temujin, sported a scruffy greying chinstrap beard that outlined his jawline, running from ear to ear. His greying beard protruded outwards at his chin area, sticking out long enough towards his chestbone. The man also had a very prominent nose, which stuck out in rather uneven manner. His small, blue eyes that were under the folds of his squinted brow scanned everyone present with slight scrutiny and the look in the man's eyes was slightly chilling for Kazu, though he did not know why. His slender, lean and slightly bony figure clearly indicated his air nomad heritage.

He wore no shirt, baring his chest for all to see. But his torso was draped in saffron and red robes that slung around his shoulder diagonally, exposing one shoulder while the other was covered under the folds of the cloth.

"Fire Sage Gao. I trust your journey was agreeable?", Master Temujin remarked as both of them bowed to each other as was formality.

"Quite pleasant , actually. I managed to get in a few good hours of meditation.", Gao chuckled.

The two air acolytes, along with the other three airbenders, walked into the common room of the airship as Kazu watched. They then returned a few seconds later, carrying some of the supplies and Kazu's rucksack, which he was quick to spring up and grab back, earning a surprised look from one of the acolytes.

"And this is Avatar Kazuhiko.", Fire Sage Gao finished his chat with Master Temujin, walking over to the sixteen year old firebender, who was still hugging his rucksack with a possessive expression on his face, appearing slightly comical. At once, the airbending master, along with the other three airbenders and the two air acolytes, bowed in greeting .

"Avatar Kazuhiko. It is truly an honor to be in your presence .", Master Temujin said with a calm voice.

Kazu chuckled awkwardly. He still needed getting used to being called 'The Avatar'.

"I am Master Temujin and I hope your stay here at the Western Air temple will be enlightening. ", Temujin continued.

He then stood back to let Kazu see the others with him.

"This is Ong and Lao.",Temujin said, nodding to the two bearded airbenders , who bowed again. Kazu smiled awkwardly .

Ong and Lao were a lot younger than Master Temujin, but they were a lot older than the youngest airbender too. They looked like they were in their mid thirties, at least.

Ong sported a scruffy goatee that was neatly kempt, not overly grown like Master Temujin's was. His grey eyes seemed rather cheerful and Kazu also noticed that Ong and Lao were mirror images of each other, leading him to guess that they were twins, except for the fact that Lao had brown eyes, which differed from his brother's and the man also had a clean shaven face.

"And this is Ryoshi, the youngest Airbending master in the western air temple. ", Temujin continued, indicating the youngest airbender present.

The guy with the unruly brown hair and the hint of the airbending tattoo under his soft bangs stepped forth, with a toothy grin. This guy was easily the youngest of the four of them. He looked barely out of his teenage years and seemed to be lacking in the facial hair department too. His brown eyes were practically grinning with his mouth as he was introduced to the avatar.

The guy had very prominent jawline and had two small braids in his hair, just behind his left ear. His dark, clear eyebrows were drawn into a friendly smile as he looked upon the newfound Avatar.

The guy stood at an average height of about five-foot-nine, maybe...well, he was several inches shorter than Master Temujin , Ong and Lao were, anyway.

"You can call me Ryo.", he added confidently, shaking Kazu's hand as the sixteen year old nodded.

"Well then, shall we get going? I am on a tight schedule after all.", Gao said with a merry smile.

* * *

The group had bee soaring for only four minutes now but Kazu was growing impatient.

Kazuhiko could see no sign of any ancient airbending temple no matter what angle he tried to scour the landscape in. The airship was now a speck in the sky . They all had to travel down by bison as apparently the vessel was too large to dock near the temple.

Fire Sage Gao and Mako, along with the other White lotus members , were riding on Master Temujin's air bison while Kazu sat in the spacious wicker saddle mounted on Ryoshi's air bison, named Taka.

Kazu leaned over towards the front of the saddle so that he could talk to Ryoshi without having to shout over the wind.

"Hey. Um.. Where exactly is...this place? Cause all I see is a bunch of spirit wilds .", he said with a slightly disappointed tone. At this, to his disapproval, Ryoshi chuckled as he whipped Taka's reins.

"Impatient aren't you? Well we don't have to weight long . We're just over it , actually.", Ryoshi replied.

Hearing this, Kazu scrambled to the edge of the saddle , leaning forward . All he saw was a giant canyon that separated the lands, a wide ridge that prevented the two shelves of land from meeting. He really did feel confused when he saw that they were all descending downward. Where on earth were they going?

Then, heard the sound of children laughing and turned around to face the rocky ledge behind him. But what he saw was no rocky ledge. What he saw made him gasp in amazement. It was an ancient looking architectural structure that overlooked the abyss below. The Western Air temple.

The entire area had a crisp layer of fog that obscured the unbelievable sight from the eyes of stragglers. The mist formed a sort of mask for the entire ridge .

The temple as in of itself was a sort of marvel to look at. The entire temple seemed to be built into the landmass of the rocky cliffside. The architecture seemed to be built upside down , with the pagodas and classrooms built onto the ceiling of the man-made cavern of the cliff walls and the roofs hanging off the bottom of each buildings themselves looked rather ancient in design , although there were traces of refurbishment here and there.

There were platforms built the right side up, that led deeper into the cliff walls , probably into some other training facility or something, but Kazu couldn't care less, his eyes were still soaking up the enchanting view of the place. From the upside down pagodas to the platforms and the stone pillars, he could easily guess that this structure had to be thousands of years old.

"Whao...", Kazu whispered in amazement. Ryoshi caught the soft whisper and smirked as he whipped Taka's reins.

Soon, the party began to dip in downward towards the temple platforms, thick stone engraved platforms that looked like they were earthbent into place. There was no way airbenders could've built this place into the mountain ridge all on their own.

As they approached the landing site, a row of gigantic statues made of finely sculpted rock crept into view. These gigantic statues seemed to be of many different airbenders , all of them standing in a similar posture with their knuckles lightly touching each other out in front of their abdomen area.

One, the one on the extreme left side, was a man with a solemn face. His hair had been depicted to being braided into two long strands that hung over his shoulders and his chest.

One of the last two of the giant sculptures was of a woman standing in a similar posture to the other airbenders. She, just like their others, seemed to be wearing some sort of circular, beaded amulet around her neck.

Maybe it was an airbender thing.

The last statue, right next to the one of the woman, was a man who was depicted to be in his forties. He had a solemn face set as well as his furrowed eyebrows gazed majestically into the wore easily identifiable airbender robes, with sculpted robes buttoned up to his throat. His most distinct feature, however, was his neatly cropped chin-strap beard that ran along his face from ear to ear.

"Who are those guys?", Kazu inquired in a low voice. Ryoshi cocked his eyebrows as he looked at Kazu before he saw what the sixteen year old was looking at.

"Oh! Yeah. That's the lineup of all the Avatars from the air nation ever.I don't know much about all of them but I'm familiar with the most recent ones. The last two were Avatar Yangchen , who I'm told, lived over a thousand years ago, and the one next to her is Avatar Aang. That was you two lifetimes ...also, he happens to be my great-granddad. ", Ryoshi elaborated.

"You're Avatar Aang's grandson?", Kazu exclaimed in amazement.

" _Great-grandson_.. there's a difference...but yeah...", Ryoshi corrected.

Suddenly, a spark lit up inside Kazu's brain, his last hope of denying the fact that he was the Avatar.

"Wait a second. Doesn't the Avatar cycle go... Air,Water, _Earth_ and then Fire? So then how could I possibly be the Avatar ? There could be a mistake!", Kazu exclaimed.

"Nah. No mistake. They said you picked the betrothal necklace that belonged to Avatar Korra out a whole chest full of other random stuff. Plus, you were already born as an earthbender, but Raksh, the spirit lord slaughtered all the earth nation children born on the day Avatar Korra went missing. That kind of an incident, an Avatar getting killed so early on, hasn't happened in over two thousand years, from what I'm last time such a thing happened was when the fire nation avatar before Avatar Dwi was killed by a much skilled earthbender, at the age of eighteen during his airbending training. ", Ryoshi replied.

"Oh..right..", Kazu muttered, slightly dejected and a little shaken. The last avatar to be killed by the enemy definitely was a fire nation avatar. That wasn't encouraging.

* * *

The group had bee soaring for only four minutes now but Kazu was growing impatient.

Kazuhiko could see no sign of any ancient airbending temple no matter what angle he tried to scour the landscape in. The airship was now a speck in the sky behind them . They all had to travel down by bison as a the vessel was apparently too large to dock near the temple.

Fire Sage Gao and Mako, along with the other White lotus members , were riding on Master Temujin's air bison named Gonzu while Kazu sat in the spacious wicker saddle mounted on Ryoshi's air bison, named Taka.

Kazu leaned over towards the front of the saddle so that he could talk to Ryoshi without having to shout over the his hands out over the saddle, Kazu crossed them up so that his elbows protruded outwards and his wrists were under his chin.

"Hey. Um.. Where exactly is...this place? Cause all I see is a bunch of spirit wilds and some pooping Airlicans.", he said with a slightly disappointed tone. At this, to his disapproval, Ryoshi chuckled as he whipped Taka's reins.

" Well we don't have to wait long . We're just over it , actually.", Ryoshi replied.

Hearing this, Kazu let out an excited gasp and scrambled over to the edge of the saddle , leaning forward . All he saw was a giant canyon that separated the lands, a wide ridge that prevented the two shelves of land from meeting with white fog misting up the landscape, obscuring the drop in the canyon. He really did feel confused when he saw that they were all descending downward. Where on earth were they going?

Then, heard the sound of children laughing and turned around to face the rocky ledge behind him, following the sound. But what he saw was no rocky ledge. What he saw made him gasp in amazement. It was an ancient looking architectural structure that overlooked the abyss below. The Western Air temple.

The entire area had a crisp layer of fog that obscured the unbelievable sight from the eyes of stragglers. The mist formed a sort of mask for the entire ridge and its cascading landmasses.

The temple as in of itself was a sort of marvel to look at. The entire temple seemed to be built into the landmass of the rocky cliffside itself, jutting downwards. The architecture seemed to be built upside down , with the pagodas and classrooms built onto the ceiling of the man-made cavern of the cliff walls and the roofs hanging off the bottom of each structure. The buildings themselves looked rather ancient in design , although there were traces of refurbishment here and there.

There were platforms built the right side up, that led deeper into the cliff walls , probably into some other training facility or something, but Kazu couldn't care less, his eyes were still soaking up the enchanting view of the place. From the upside down pagodas to the platforms and the stone pillars, he could easily guess that this structure had to be thousands of years old.

"Whao...", Kazu whispered in amazement. Ryoshi caught the soft whisper and smiled as he whipped Taka's reins.

Soon, the party began to dip in downward towards the temple platforms, thick stone engraved platforms that looked like they were earthbent into place. There was no way airbenders could've built this place into the mountain ridge all on their own.

As they approached the landing site, a row of gigantic statues made of finely sculpted rock crept into view. These gigantic statues seemed to be of many different airbenders , all of them standing in a similar posture with their knuckles lightly touching each other out in front of their abdomen area.

The one on the extreme left side was a man with a solemn face. His hair had been depicted to being braided into two long strands that hung over his shoulders and his had a very squarish face and a stubbly looking face with a crooked nose.

One of the last two of the giant sculptures was of a woman standing in a similar posture to the other hairline looked exceedingly receeded, as if it was done on purpose, with it shaped like an upside down 'U' that displayed her airbender tattoo. She, just like their others, seemed to be wearing some sort of circular, beaded amulet around her neck.

Maybe it was an airbender thing.

The last statue, right next to the one of the woman, was a man who was depicted to be in his forties. He had a solemn face set as well as his furrowed eyebrows gazed majestically into the wore easily identifiable airbender robes, with sculpted robes buttoned up to his throat. His most distinct feature, however, was his neatly cropped chin-strap beard that ran along his face from ear to ear.

"Who are those guys?", Kazu inquired in a low voice. Ryoshi cocked his eyebrows as he looked at Kazu before he saw what the sixteen year old was looking at.

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah. That's the lineup of all the Avatars from the air nation ever.I don't know much about all of them but I'm familiar with the most recent ones. The last three are Avatar Tai-shien, Avatar Yangchen , who I'm told, lived over a thousand years ago, and the one next to her is Avatar Aang. That was you two lifetimes ... and also, he happens to be my great-granddad. ", Ryoshi elaborated.

"You're Avatar Aang's grandson?", Kazu exclaimed in amazement.

" _Great-grandson_.. there's a difference...but yeah...", Ryoshi corrected.

Suddenly, a spark lit up inside Kazu's brain, his last hope of denying the fact that he was the Avatar.

"Wait a second. Doesn't the Avatar cycle go... Air,Water, _Earth_ and then Fire? So then how could I possibly be the Avatar ? There could be a mistake!", Kazu exclaimed.

"Nah. No mistake. They said you picked the betrothal necklace that belonged to Avatar Korra out of a whole chest full of other random stuff. Plus, you were already born as an earthbender, but Raksh, the spirit lord, slaughtered all the earth nation children born on the day Avatar Korra went missing. That kind of an incident, an Avatar getting killed so early on, hasn't happened in over two thousand years, from what I heard, the last time such a thing happened was when the fire nation avatar before Avatar Dwi was killed by a much skilled earthbender, at the age of eighteen during his airbending training. ", Ryoshi replied.

"Oh..right..", Kazu muttered, slightly dejected and a little shaken. The last avatar to be killed by the enemy definitely was a fire nation avatar. That wasn't encouraging.

/

Many of the air acolytes and the airbenders gathered around as Kazu dropped down from Taka's saddle . It wasn't everyday you got to see an Avatar after all.

Swinging his rucksack over his shoulder, Kazu grinned toothily and waved awkwardly at the crowd, out of whom some were busy engrossed in making up possible gossip scoops while some were busy staring at the new comer .

"You need to say something.", Ryoshi whispered as he landed softly next to him, cushioning his drop using his airbending.

"Oh.. ..Hey everyone..I'm Kazuhiko. You can...call me Kazu.", he finished, slightly unsure of how to introduce himself

The crowd blinked twice at this confused introduction before they all burst into cheers and were busy welcoming Kazu to their abode.

Three boys of around his age range walked up to him and Ryoshi. They were wearing matching red shirts and were holding onto a lightweight wooden ball.

"Nice to meet you, Avatar. I'm Shenji.", the guy in the front said, introducing himself.

Shenji was a guy probably at the age of fifteen. He sported a close buzz-cut , which was the closest thing to having your head completely shaven without actually doing it. He stood at a height of about five-foot-four, which was marginally shorter than Kazu's own. His grey eyes were smiling mischievously at the Avatar as he eyed him.

"This is Nobu and that's Kenji.", he added, nodding to his two friends, who waved at Kazu with cheerful expressions.

Now, Nobu looked like he was barely into his teens, at most eleven with a clean shaven head and a rounded face, which accentuated his childish, innocent appearance. He was the shortest out of the three, probably due to his young age. He also seemed to be holding a wooden staff, which Kazu recognized as a gliderstaff, the traditional airbender's flight apparatus. Kazu also noticed that Ryoshi's own gliderstaff seemed a lot more modern and more unique, compared to the others( for example, it wasn't made of wood, but of a lightweight metal).

Kenji , on the other hand, bore a strong resemblance with Shenji, leading Kazu to guess that the two were somehow related . Kenji was almost Kazu's height and he wore shoulder length black hair that he had tied up into a top-knot. His button-like nose scrunched as he held his smile. His eyebrows, unlike Shenji's were not as prominent and were small and roundish, as compared to Shenji's long, angular ones that tapered towards his nose ridge.

"You should get to know these guys. They'll be in your dorm during your stay here.", Ryoshi whispered .

"We were gonna play airball. You wanna join?", Kenji asked cheerfully as he spun the wooden ball in his palm using his airbending, spinning inches above his skin.

Kazu's face lit up as he nodded. It was a common known fact back in the fire nation that the sixteen year old was a sucker for sports and other such activities. Hence, it was a no-brainer for Kazu to accept the request to not get bogged down by all the people staring at the arrival of the Avatar. And before any of the adults or the others could talk to him, Kazuhiko was already off, bouncing off to play with the three airbenders who had invited him in.

* * *

"The Avatar does not know who killed his parents or how they died. He believes that they perished in a car accident sixteen years ago. His sister was too young to remember the details as well. We would like to keep it that way. ", Abu, a square-jawed, big built waterbending White Lotus member stated, with a solemn face.

The party of the white lotus , along with Sage Gao and former Republic city police chief Mako were inside the council room of the western air temple, a circular room that you had to climb a flight of stone carved stair to get to. The room had a domed ceiling with murals of the Avatar Yangchen in an airbending form that was painted almost a thousand years was an achievement that the painting still stood without a scratch to this day.

A solitary circular table that was clearly earthbent out of the stone floor , was fixed in the middle of the room. All ten of the wooden chairs at the table were occupied by the white lotus members, Sage Gao, Mako,a few of the airbending masters and Master Temujin, who sat there, stroking his beard in deep thought.

"So you want us to keep the truth from the young Avatar.", Temujin simply stated with a scrutinizing glance .

"In a manner of speaking. We do not know how such news would affect his emotional state and we need to keep the boy focused on his Avatar training so that he is prepared ,should the day come when he has to face the inevitable.", Abu stated as his counterparts nodded silently in agreement.

"Under normal circumstances we would have told the boy ourselves. But since there is no conclusive proof that the Raksh has truly been vanquished, we have to take all the risks. Even if that means keeping the boy in the dark about his past. ", a female white lotus remarked.

"Very well. ", Temujin sighed after a moment's hesitation.

"But Kazuhiko should be given a chance to live a normal life. He needs to learn and have fun just like all the other pupils under your guidance. ",Sage Gao intervened, expressing his thoughts.

"THIS IS SERIOUS!", Abu bellowed, banging his hand on the table, startling everyone present.

"The Avatar needs to be trained at all times so that he is fully prepared when the time comes. Have you forgotten that Avatar Korra, a fully realized Avatar, fell to the Raksh ? We need to make it our priority to prepare the boy . Not let him play games and live the _normal_ life!You know he will never be a _normal_ person! He is the Avatar for la's sake!", Abu bellowed, pressing his point as he glared at the fire sage, who hadn't uttered a word during the outburst.

At the mention of Korra 'falling' in battle, a twisted knot in Mako stomach tightened and he glared at the White lotus through his keen, pivoting eyes, grinding his teeth.

"Yes. I am well aware of who he is. But that does not mean he shouldn't get the chance .He is, after all, flesh and blood, like the rest of us. A human like the rest of us.", Gao continued.

"Hm...I do see both sides of your arguments. ...I will try my best to honor both your requests.", Master Temujin interjected coolly.

Gao smiled contentedly and gave the airbending master a small nod.

"Another matter of priority is that no one is to know that the Avatar has been found or has begun his training. We still have reports of Rakshasans or loyalists coming up every now and to mention the terror threats rising right outside the temple, in Beltunsh. We cannot afford to let them know of his coming. They will stop at nothing till they have their hands on the Avatar.", Mako spoke up with a determined tone.

Temujin eyed his wearily for a prolonged second before nodding .

"Understood. Not a word of his arrival will leave the air temple and I shall instruct all the acolytes and the pupils of the same. ", Temujin said.

"I also advise a close watch on the boy at all be safe.", Mako added as all of them glanced at him .

Sage Gao eyed his comrade wearily. He knew why Mako was being so protective. The only problem was if it crossed the line to the territory of being over-protective.

"Understood.", Temujin stated, stroking his scruffy beard.

* * *

As it would turn out, Airball was a fast paced game that could only be played properly if you knew airbending.

The airball field was built on another stone platform that you could only reach by scaling two steep flights of stairs engraved out from the rocky ledges of the temple cliff walls.

The field was composed of many cylindrical wooden poles of different heights mounted into the stone floor.

"So we use airbending to pinball the ball around the court, using the poles to ricochet the ball towards the opponent can move the ball in any manner we want. Got it? ", Shenji elaborated as he spun the lightweight wicker ball inches from his palm using his airbending prowess.

"Cool..", Kazu said with a smile as he examined the area, eager to try out this new game.

"Yeah..only...there's one problem. I forgot that you don't know how to airbend yet..so...", Kenji chimed in as Ryoshi scratched his chin.

"Nah. It's okay. I gotta try this out still.", Kazu waved off the airbenders glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Okay..", Kenji remarked, albeit a bit unsurely."Let the games begin.".

/

Soon, all four players-Kenji and Nobu against Kazu and Ryoshi, were all in position on the poles, with Kazu acting as the keeper while Ryoshi, being able to airbend, was the shooter.

"And...GO!", Shenji exclaimed and at the sound, Ryoshi, who had the airball spinning above his hand until then , suddenly sent a gust of wind at it and let the ball fly up vertically before he leapt up and performed a roundhouse aerial kick, sending a whip of air at the ball as it came down. The gust of wind sent the ball shooting across the field, into the path of the wooden poles.

Everyone watched with concentrating eyes as the ball ricocheted back and forth in various directions at incredible speeds before it crossed Nobu's path. The young airbender used his element and brought the ball under his control, spinning the ball around his hips before bringing it forward and punching the air out in front of him, sending the ball shooting back at Kazu with such speed and force that the sixteen year old barely had time to blink before he felt the wicker material of the ball strike him squarely in the abdomen,lifting him off his feet and sending him straight through the revolving wooden goal ring that he was supposed to be guarding.

The next thing he knew, he was lying face down on the stone floor with his back aching, the wicker ball on the floor next to him. The sixteen year old had a stunned look on his face. The young airbender's looks were deceiving. Kazu had thought him to be an amateur but the boy was just as powerful as any other airbender Kazu had seen so far. This was embarrassing . He can't lose to an eleven year old.

* * *

Kazu lost to an eleven year old.

"That was embarrassing...", Kazu muttered as he and Ryoshi walked up the shallow stone walls that lined the inner cliff walls.

They had finished the game (Kazu and Ryoshi lost the game eight -four), and now the twenty one year old Airbender was showing Kazu around the place. Ahead of them was an upside down pagoda with creamy white walls and green tiled upside down roofs. There was a wooden plaque visible on the doorway that read ' _dormitory_ ' in airbender dialect.

"He-Hah! Nah. It was alright actually. You managed to stand and run around on those poles for as long as you did. Most non-airbenders can't even walk straight on that. Ya need a certain level of balance to be able to play the game. ", Ryoshi laughed.

"Hm...so this is the dormitory, right?", Kazu inquired, nodding to the pagoda as they entered it.

"Yeah. But this is one of the boy's dormitories. According to airbender culture, boys and girls don't sleep in the same area. Apparently it was worse before... This air temple only housed female airbenders back then. The genders were divided up to prevent any complications.", Ryoshi elaborated as Kazu looked around, admiring the place.

The inner pagoda was neatly crafted, with eight rooms complete with sliding sheet partitions that were lined along each floor, with there being four floors in floor was built on top of each other, meaning, from the top floor, if one person were to jump down, he would land exactly where Kazu was standing.

However, there didn't seem to be any ladder for moving from floor to floor. And there seemed to be no safety railing on any of the wooden floor boards either.

"Yeah..but I just found out one problem...We use our airbending to move up and down the floors...I don't know how you're gonna manage that since you can't airbend yet...", Ryoshi said with an awkward chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Kazu looked up at him at grinned toothily.

"Nah. No problem. I got this.", he remarked proudly before shooting a jet of flames from the heels of his feet and from his palms, using it to propel him upward, till he landed softly on the top most floor before turning and waving proudly at Ryoshi, who was smiling up at him with a surprised expression.

"I guess that won't be a problem then..", the airbender chuckled.

/

Ryoshi now led Kazu through a winding pathway that was lit up with torches, casting an orangish glow on the walked for almost two entire minutes through the pathway before Kazu spotted an arched open doorway at the end of the tunnel that was built into the cliffside.

As they entered into the clearing, Kazu squinted his eyes as the sudden eyes hit him. Soon, as his eyes adjusted to the bright light, he noticed that they were standing at the entrance of a vast , circular hall with it's ceiling barely visible uptop. Numerous statues lined the walls leading down from the ceiling and formed a type of circular, mazelike pattern, converging towards the center of the room. All the statues were built with the person standing in the same identical posture, with their elbows out sideways and their knuckles lightly touching each other towards their chest.

Young air benders roamed the area,some playing around while others simply sat and stared at the statues.

"Whoa...", Kazu breathed as his eyes widened in amazement, looking around.

"Welcome to the statue room. All the air temples across the world has one of these and you'll find a statue of every avatar that ever lived. ", Ryoshi replied with a smile at seeing Kazu's amazement.

Kazu couldn't recognize any of the statues , except for Aang and Yangchen. Then there was Avatar Korra. Kazu didn't know why, but he felt like he knew the woman , despite knowing that he didn't, at the same time. His pupils dilated as he stared at the middle aged avatar's stoic face, staring ahead. His attention was only diverted when Ryoshi yelled in a horrified voice next to him.

"Naoe-Lin! Stop drawing on Avatar Tai-Lung's face!Master Temujin will have my head!", the twenty one year old exclaimed and rushed off to apprehend the nine year old airbender who was drawing pictures of pooping airbison on one of the statue's face.

/

"And this is the dining hall. And before you ask, we don't eat meat here.", Ryoshi added as he lead Kazu around a winding pathway through a long, rectangular room with a domed ceiling. Four long, shallow , wooden tables lined the room a doorway in a symmetrical pattern. The flooring was made of plywood and was soft to the touch. A doorway could be seen on the left wall where, Kazu guessed, was the corridor into the kitchen.

Kazu groaned when he was told that there was no meat being served. It was a common fact back at the fire nation servant's quarters that he was an ardent fan of the roasted arctic hen . But this place seemed like there would be no arctic hen for him for months, maybe even years. His shoulders drooped at the thought.

"But...if you crave meat a lot, we could always just hop on my air bison and visit Beltunsh. It's just ten minutes away by air.", Ryoshi added, seeing Kazu crestfallen pouting .

Immediately, his face lit up in happiness. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

"I can live with that.", Kazu sighed as Ryoshi chuckled.

"Come on.", the twenty one year old beckoned and walked forth, leading the way out of the dining area.

/

Kazu was being entirely honest with himself when he said that this place was weird and cool at the same time. Ryoshi had just finished the tour of the Western air temple , ending with the 'all day- Echo chamber' and the giant Pai sho table in the eastern sector of the temple. Apparently, this game too, needed it's players to know Airbending or at least earthbending in order to move the giant pai sho tiles along the giant checkered board.

The all day echo chamber was a giant room with domed walls and a domed ceiling that was strategically placed in order to manipulate the air waves so that the echo of a sound or a voice would keep repeating over and over and over again until the doors of the giant chamber was opened to allow the air waves to had been originally built as a diversion in case attackers were to enter the temple,but now, it was more of a game among the younger airbenders.

"Hey Ryo, ", a female voice called out from behind the two . They both turned to see a female airbender, probably at the age of thirteen, running up to them .

"The white lotus are leaving. They wish to have a few words with the Avatar.", she panted.

Kazu groaned. It was probably going to be some endearing talk about his responsibilities or something like that. He hoped Fire Sage Gao was staying. He had grown to like the weird old man...a little.

* * *

"So...what did the Fire Sage tell you?", Ryoshi inquired with a curious expression as both of them waved at the airship that was now disappearing into the blanket of clouds in the skies. Kazu and Ryoshi were mounted on Taka's saddle as the air bison hovered mid air just a few feet above the thickets of the spirit wilds that hid the canyon of the Western Air temple from the eyes of stragglers.

"Just some stuff about keeping a low profile. ", Kazu mumbled. He had been hoping that the fire sage would stay back, but looks like he won't be having his way. Again. He was now left in a strange land with stranger all around him. Just his luck.

"Um...cool.. It's almost lunch time. You wanna eat at the temple or visit Beltunsh?", Ryoshi inquired as he grasped Taka's reins.

Kazu was in no mood to be eating vegetables and greens at the moment, so they ended up choosing the latter and the air bison cooed as they flew in the direction of the speck of concrete in the horizon that was Beltunsh.

"Taka, Yip!Yip!", Ryoshi exclaimed, as his airbison cooed and soared forward with the wind whipping at their hair.

* * *

The city was unlike anything Kazu had ever seen before his entire life.

The paved footpaths were crowded with people and there were many satomobiles and satocycles that jammed the streets.

With a grin etched across his face, his eyes let him take in every single detail they could catch.

From the fashionable clothing the locals wore to the giant mover posters that stuck up on the the walls of alleyways. Ryoshi told him that Beltunsh, which was essentially a trading post for the earth provinces, was a lot smaller than Republic city , the most modern city in the world. But despite knowing that fact, Kazu couldn't stop admiring the place.

The high rising towers made of limestone ore and metal stood like a monument in the middle of nowhere, a modern oasis. The smooth, tar roads were a testament to the ingenuity of the world they lived in and the winding over-head bridges gave you a headache if you tried to follow it all the way.

Giant billboards of upcoming movers and other such entertainment relating events watched over the city as the people from various walks of life went about their daily routine. The people here were dressed a lot differently , compared to how people dressed in the Fire nation. Here, people wore long, comfortable brown garb that was ironed and neatly premed , with loose, creamy pants that hung around their legs, inserted into their footwear, finishing the look. Kazu noticed that many people were wearing similar clothing , complete with a silver set of accessories such as tapered necklaces of metal bracelets that covered their forearms whole.

There were many spirits floating around as well, with many of them travelling with their human companions, perched on their head or on their shoulder. Many other colorful spirit sat on the rooftops and on the billboards, eyeing everyone on the streets as Kazu walked by with his mouth stretched into a smile in amazement.

Kazu couldn't believe this place was just a few minutes away from the Western Air temple, where it appeared like you had time traveled back to the days of old.

Some of the teenaged folk Kazu had happened to come across seemed rather weird too, with their hair chopped off on one of their sides while they let the rest of it to grow out . Some other had a few strands of hair colored red or pink or some other eye catching color. Fashion here certainly was new and quirky.

Kazu ducked and weaved out of the way as a few teenage girls came speeding in his direction , stationary , standing on some sort of metal rectangular board and the girls, presumably metal benders, where controlling the thing as it whizzed past Kazu, as if it were some sort of miniature vehicle. And by the looks of it, they seemed to be having a lot of fun with it, since they were laughing gleefully as they zoomed past, using their metalbending to curve the rectangular metal board in whatever direction they pleased.

Whatever that thing was, Kazu wanted to try it out. It looked a lot of fun.

Ryoshi showed him around most of the place, from the high-rising hotels to the many malls around the place and even the fifteen foot tall granite statue of Avatar Kyoshi, which the city had apparently been built around. Unlike all the avatar statues he had seen so far, Kyoshi wore a very somber expression with a sort of intimidating agenda in the way she posed with her trademark fans held in each palm at her sides and she wore her head crest, just like in all the paintings of her he had seen so far.

/

"Honestly, dish thing tashtesh really good. You don't know what you're mishing.", Kazu mumbled, his mouth stuffed with a koifish roll.

"Hah. No thanks. Airbenders don't eat meat. One of the many things you're gonna have to adapt to sooner than later.", Ryoshi said, shaking his head declining the offer.

Kazu shrugged and dug his teeth hungrily into the tasty snack again.

It had been over four hours since they had gotten to Beltunsh now and the skies were a bright crimson now.

Looking up, Ryoshi sighed.

" It's getting dark out. We better head back to the air temple. Master Temujin tends to lock up the entrance doors early.", Ryoshi remarked.

"Sure. Let me just go get a postcard to send pictures to my sister.", Kazu replied through his stuffed mouth.

He chowed down on his food before stashing the packet into a nearby trashcan. Then he jogged off round the bend, leaving Ryoshi to wait as he headed towards a gift shop he had scouted the quaint looking doorway of the shop, Kazu slowed down his pace and walked towards the door, sniffing his nose due to the spicy food he had just eaten.

As Kazu pushed open the wooden doors of the quaint looking gift shop, the door flung open and he caught sight of a blur of blue close to him and the next thing he knew, he had collided hard with something and he was sitting on the ground , rubbing his chest where he had been hit.

His eyes still closed as he rubbed his chest from the sudden pain, he chided at his attacker, whoever it was, in an irritated voice.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, will you bro!?", he yelled in annoyance and only opened his eyes when it was a girl's voice that he heard.

"You watch where you're going, over grown hogmonkey!".

Kazu opened his eyes and blinked as he saw a water tribe girl on the ground in front of him, her feet barely inches apart from his. And she wore a clearly evident expression of anger and annoyance on her slightly tanned face.

Her greyish golden eyes were glaring at Kazu and she rubbed her head, still sitting on the eyes were not normal water tribe eyes and he could tell she had a mixed bloodline in her.

She had her chocolate brown hair that was let loose, falling in mild waves to her hip level and she had her bangs falling sideways along her face, from left to right , blowing slightly in the wind.

She wore a single navy blue spool that clumped her hair on the left side of her face, just in front of her ear. Towards her right side, her hair flowed freely with no spool or hair clip, forming a kind of hairstyle he had seen many water benders sport, even the guys sometimes. It was supposedly the current fashion trend among waterbenders.

She wore a kind of choker necklace around her neck with what he recognized as an amber betrothal necklace with beautifully intricate carvings etched into it.

She had a small button nose and wide eyes which matched her slightly roundish face.

She was wearing water tribe clothing, but it seemed to be slim fitting , with black leggings that hugged her legs. It looked like some sort of dance attire, complete with a blue tanktop that fell a few inches below her waistline and she also sported a designer water tribe armband on her bicep with white and blue colors blending nicely, and it seemed to be relatively smaller than most he had seen so far.

"What're you lookin at?", the girl asked hotly, picking herself off the ground .

"Nothing...", Kazu said , dusting himself simultaneously. "I'm sorry, I'm just new here.", he added with a smile ,which was returned with a blank face from her.

The girl raised an eyebrow and shrugged, picking up her bag that was lying next to her with an impatient expression.

"Yeah? Well welcome to Beltunsh. Now get outta the way, cause I gotta run. ", she said, with an irritated voice, which threw Kazu over the line of being nice as well.

But before he could retort, she shoved past him and sprinted away down the street out of sight as she clambered onto a passing by Varrtram.

"What the heck was her problem?!", Kazu exclaimed in anger , throwing his arms wide open as he turned back into the gift shop, where the little old shop owner lady was watching the boy's tantrums with an amused expression.

* * *

With a resounding thud, Taka landed on the stone floors of the platform which housed the tamed air bison of the temple. Giving the animal a pat to say goodnight, Ryoshi leapt of Taka's head, cushioning himself with airbending as his feet touched the floor. Kazu landed with an easily audible 'clunk' after the airbender.

As Taka gave his master a goodnight lick, the sound of stone groveling against stone echoed throughout the temple, like a low hum in the night. Turning around, Kazu caught sight of eleven airbenders blasting torrents of strong wind currents at the rotating seventeen foot stone doors, sliding them outward.

The temple had these rotating stone doors fitted on each platform, with six of these doors per platform. These doors were mostly plain with no design except for a few outlines carved around the edges . Apparently, as per what Ryoshi had told them, this place had been refurbished by Avatar Aang after the hundred year war since it had almost been wiped off the edge of the cliff due to his run ins with the fire nation armada.

With perfect sync, the doors on each platform rotated and shut with an echoing 'clunk' that vibrated for a few prolonged seconds.

Subconsciously, Kazu began to wonder how long it would take for him to be able to produce a wind torrent that powerful, even though he technically had never bent any other element before, not counting that time four days ago when he had accidentally performed earthbending during his fight with the thugs at Capital city port.

Immediately, Kazu noticed that most of the airbenders and the air acolytes were already bidding each other goodnight and heading into their respective dormitories, even though the sun had just set in the skies.

"Hey um...Doesn't anyone stay up late around here? Or is it custom that everyone goes to sleep this early?", Kazu asked curiously as Ryoshi chuckled.

"Nah. No custom. Everyone just sleeps early because it's easier to get up tomorrow then. You'll see what I'm talking about.", Ryoshi replied as he rolled up his sleeves, spinning his gliderstaff onto his shoulder. Then, an expression of realization shot onto his face and he whipped around to face the young avatar.

" Oh! And I almost forgot. There's one more person I'd like you to meet. Besides you, she's the only person in the entire temple who bends another element . Maybe you two could get along .", Ryoshi added as his face lit up as if he had almost forgotten something and suddenly cut direction and turned right, leading Kazu away from the dormitory areas.

The area they were heading to was on the right side of the giant stone statues of the past air nation avatars, down a flight of stone stairs and past the kitchen hall . They walked through an arched doorway that Kazu remembered was the dining hall. And sure enough, it was.

The place was almost empty, except for the air acolytes who were still cleaning up for the night.

As Kazu followed Ryoshi, he saw one person, a girl in a sleeveless ,black tank top . She looked oddly familiar, sitting at one of the four ,long wooden tables, sipping up a bowl of lentil soup. She had her back turned to them as they approached.

"Hey,Kiara! There's someone here I'd like you to meet. Avatar Kazuhiko.", Ryoshi called out with an air of ease and familiarity, meaning he knew this girl .

The girl almost choked on her soup at being told that the Avatar was in the same room as her and leapt up, turning around, her cheeks still rounded from the noodles she had stuffed into her mouth.

Her hair was tied up into a ponytail now , different from how Kazu had last seen the girl, but there was no mistaking her.

It was the rude girl who had knocked him down earlier at the gift store. And she seemed to recognize Kazu as well,since her face went blank, with eyes bulging out as she gulped down the remainder of the food in her mouth to let her jaw hang open .

"YOU?!", both of them exclaimed simultaneously.

"So...you two have met before?", Ryoshi perked up, a little confused to their reaction.

"Aw, monkeyfeathers!", Kazu cursed, crossing his arms in irritation. So much for his stay in the air temple being pleasant.

* * *

The twenty foot tall, imposing metal doors of the Shai-Shein prison deep in the mountain valleys outside Republic city remained shut , with five white lotus sentries posted outside, standing guard over the massive entire prison had been carved and caved into by earthbenders about nine hundred year prior, with it initially being constructed to house water bender prisoners.

Two massive pillars carved out of the rock of the mountain side stood on either side of the equally massive entrance door. A stone pathway of sandstone and mud had been carved out by earthbenders, leading upto the massive entrance to the prison.

Inside, the large, domed hallway of the prison was lit up with silently crackling torches that filled the area with the scent of burning scent of food wafted through the air as one of the sentries disembarked the elevator and proceeded towards the only cell within the structure.

This isolated cell was built almost twelve storeys below ground level and the ceiling had cracks and wet moss lining it, creating an earthly scent through the air , entering the nostrils of the two metal bender sentries who were posted outside the ten foot tall metal plated doorway . Four yellowish lamps provided the only source of light in the damp area.

As the sentry carrying the food approached, the other two sentries posted outside nodded to him and turned around , lifting their hands up , folding their palms into fists before pulling down, bending the heavy metal chains that controlled the doorway. As the metal clunked according to their movements, the doorway slowly slid open,with the sound of metal rubbing against the rock echoing through the muddy chamber.

As the door slid up gradually, a silvery, dull metal cube shaped room, fairly the size of an average bedroom came into view, with intricately engraved markings running through out the cubicle in symmetrical patterns.

"Broach the wall.", one of the guards croaked and the sentry carrying the food nodded, walking forwards into the dull silvery cubicle before turning around to the sound of the guards metal bending the metal door shut behind him.

Then, as the door clunked upon making contact with the metal floor, after a moment of silence, the other end of the cubicle creaked and began to slide open, with the sound of metal chains rattling through the air.

As the door slid up gradually, greenish light crept into the cubicle, engulfing the place in the glow. The smell of sweat and rotten food wafted through the air as the doorway slid upto the man's face level.

The sentry squinted slightly as the greenish light hit his face.

A massive cave-like chamber that was slightly larger than the size of the Firelord's council room came into view .It had white, squared granite tiled floors and it's walls were made of black rock and glowing, emerald stones. Four powerful lamps perched on the the four corners of the rocky walls lit up the place in greenish light.

A single,slightly raised platform made of grey lead stood in the middle of the cave hall with two emerald lamps which were about knee high standing in front of the platform.

The sentry took in a deep breath and proceeded onwards, walking into the hallway that housed the one inmate.

Metal chains attached to her wrists clunked when her keen ears picked up the soft sound of the sentries footwear walking over the granite let out a raspy breath but didn't look up, letting her head hang the way it had been, with her jet black hair hanging off her face in an unruly and uncouth manner.

The female inmate had her entire hands locked up in chains, metal cuffed that encased her palms whole so that she couldn't airbend. Her sky blue eyes were a testament to her mixed heritage and her lips were cracked from lack of proper food and water. She was a mere shadow of her former self with her skin etched across her body body that was deprived off the required nutrients.

The woman wore tattered , slightly torn grey robes that were wet from her dripping sweat . She sat flat in the middle of the platform , paying no attention to the other human being in the room.

The sentry walked up and stopped at the foot of the platform.

"You know, if you starve yourself to death, it's not out fault.", the man replied with a taunting tone as he glanced over at the metal plate that still had a half eaten piece of food .

The woman said nothing, completely ignoring the sentry.

"You know, some of the others are beginning to think that you've gone insane. Sitting here and muttering to yerself...", the man droned on as he walked over and placed the new bowl of rice and lentil before taking up the wreaking bowl of food that had been given over five nights prior.

"Jeez. Don't you have any form of hygiene, lady?", the lotus sentry scoffed as he pinched his nose at the figure of the woman sitting on the floor, her head bent and damp black hair sprawled over her face, obscuring it from view.

She stayed silent as ever.

"Eat up. The warden's coming over tomorrow to check up . Wouldn't be much of a thing to see if you already die ,now will there?", the sentry snorted and turned on his heel, walking out at a slow pace, the same way he had entered the cell.

Standing a few inches away from the metal doorway, he turned, sparing one more pathetic glance at the prisoner before turning and pressing down on the radio button on his belt, alerting the others on the other side that he was done.

A few seconds later ,the chains began to clink and the metal door began to rattle open.

But the guards on the other end were not paying attention to their duty, busy chatting about some topic among themselves. It had been over nine years since the prisoner had been incarcerated and she had not made any attempts to escape yet. So why worry?

As the doors opened simultaneously, the guard who had entered the prison cell walked out and joined the other two posted sentries in their hot topic as they began to metal bend the doors shut.

The prisoner did not look up nor did she look at her food. She simply stared at the coarse granite ground that the was sitting on. But as the ten foot tall metal doors were clanging shut, her ears managed to pick up a few words of what the men were discussing.

"-yeah. That match was lousy. I watched it on the televarrick...Hey! By the way, did you hear? I'm not sure about this and we're not supposed to tell anyone , but I think that the lotus has finally found the avatar!An he's a firebender, from what I hear.", one of the exclaimed to which the others , one of them a female, gasped in disbelief.

Then, the prisoner heard no more as the the sound of the metal door hitting the floorway echoed through the massive chamber.

But she had heard enough. They had found the Avatar.

Ta-lin's head shot upwards and her bleary eyes glared at the doorway,her matted hair sprawled over her face, obscuring her facial features. A hint of a malicious smile spread across her dry, cracked lips as her head replayed the thought, sitting in the center of the emerald lit chamber, shackled with chains on her wrists and ankles.

* * *

 **That's all for this chapter folks! Hope you enjoyed reading it!**

 **Any suggestions and constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks for reading!**

 **Until next time, Avatar,Yip-Yip!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Airbending

REPLY TO COMMENTS:

Curiousmaq: Thanks!

Vergil Leonidas : Thanks for the review! And I know what you found repetitive. But I'd like to point out that the first time Kazu sees the Avatar statues, it's the gigantic ones of Air nation Avatars that's been carved into the wall of the temple. The second time when Ryo leads him to the statue room, it's smaller statues of the avatars from every nation,not just air nation avatars. Hope that cleared the confusion.

Avatarangkorra : Thanks!

* * *

 **Legend Of Korra and all other 'Avatar' related Material are owned by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko**

 **BOOK ONE : ACCEPTANCE**

Chapter Three - Airbending

* * *

 _Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring peace and balance to the world._

* * *

A flock of blue dragonfly-hummingbirds chirped cheerfully as the first light of dawn began creeping across the landscape, gradually, inch by inch.

The air outside was chilling, mostly due to the cold nights that the location would experience on a daily basis. The animals of the area, such as the catdeers and the fire ferrets were all just emerging out of their respective habitats, stretching , ready for another day of activities. The morning air cast a cool sense of calm over the landscape, one which could only be experience if you would get up in the wee hours of dawn.

There was not a sound to be heard from the confines of the western air temple, where most, if not all, the air acolytes and airbenders were deep in their slumbers, snoring away in peace. Sleeping in the temple was one luxury that the location presented it's inhabitants. While most modern areas required water bent cooling systems, the natural cold air around the location acted as a cooling agent,reducing the need for such technology

The dormitories were filled with the slow, drawling sound of people snoring. Kazuhiko lay in his bed, eyes shut and deep in slumberland. His hair was sprawled in unruly directions, a bed head, and his legs were sprawled awkwardly in random direction like the tentacles of the sharksquid. He lay on his front, cheek buried into the soft pillow of his bed, with one hand hanging loosely off the edge, dangling inches away from the stone floor.

He shared his dorm room with two other airbenders, the twins, Shenji and Kenji. Both of them snored louder than Kazu and a single bubble from his mouth expanded and reduced in size as Shenji snored carelessly. Kenji, on the other hand, was a hugger. He lay there hugging his pillow tight into his chest, not giving it space to breathe and he was murmuring softly in his sleep , a wide smile plastered on his face.

"Mhhmm...That's a goood air bison...Come on...Give daddy a kiss...", Kenji muttered in his sleep with a sheepish smile on his face, eyes shut.

Then, the peace and quiet of the morning was over , as the main door of the dormitories banged open , waking some of the sleeping airbenders due to the echoing noise. If some didn't get up even after that, they surely did from the next thing that happened.

The intruder raised his air trumpet to his lips and blew hard. As he did so, an unnerving and irritating blast of a horn like sound boomed out of it, shocking everyone awake. Kazu fell over from his bed in fright, yelping in pain as his butt hit the cold stone floor.

"Ow!", Kazu groaned as he hauled himself up, yawning and rubbing his but simultaneously."What the heck just happened?".

As if to answer him, a loud, deep voice of an adult man boomed from the entrance door of the dormitories below.

"IT'S TIME TO GET UP,LADS! UP ON YOUR FEET!".

The voice was a slightly familiar on. It was a commanding tone and demanded respect. It sounded like one of those stereotypical United army generals you see in one of those war movers. Kazu rubbed his head sleepily, his eyes begging to be shut again.

"What's happening?", he asked with a deep yawn, an irritated expression stretched on his face.

"We go around the valley in the morning, doing whatever master Temujin tells us to do. Essentially it's early morning exercise. ", Kenji explained as he blasted wind into his brother's face, to wake him up. The force of the wind blasted Shenji off his bed and onto the floor. Hey lay there, groaning , his eyes half shut as he struggled to wake himself.

"Exercise? Are you kidding? It's barely light out!",Kazu exclaimed, throwing his hands towards the slit on top portion of heir wall, the area that allowed sunlight to enter the room.

"Welcome to the life of an airbender.", Kenji yawned, shrugging in a groggy manner .

Kazu groaned and fell back down onto the bed, groaning as he clutched at his hair. He was already missing his days as a street kid in Capital city, where he could get up and sleep whenever he liked.

* * *

Eliciting a strained groan as he hauled himself up, over the edge of the rocky stump , Kazu cursed mentally and wished he could just go back to sleep.

The rocky stump made of spiritvine stone stood tall, towering over the short spirit wild vegetation below. They were at least half an hour's walk from the western air temple and none of the other airbenders seemed to have a problem keeping up with the airbending master Temujin(who had been the one to wake them all up abruptly), besides Kazu, who was the last at climbing over tall trees and over ledges so far in their hike. Well, to be fair, he didn't have airbending like the others and he was told not to use fire in any way whatsoever, and that really bummed him out.

" Now. Everyone get into the lotus position and calm your minds. Focus on the sound of my voice. ", Master Temujin instructed as he himself sat down, legs folded and eyes closed shut.

Shivering slightly from the cold temperature around them, Kazu followed the others airbenders and sat down, straightening his back and legs folded.

"D-don't airbenders have some warm furry insulation clothng ?", Kazu whispered , but Temujin simply ignored his comment. The air master did not say it, for it would be rude, but for someone as important as the Avatar, the boy was rather whiny, unlike Avatar Korra had been.

As he got no response, Kazu shut his eye and instantly his restless mind began to wander.

 _I wonder if they make fried arctic hen in Beltunsh...Focus...oooh...I could just try and sneak off and...focus.._

Kazu gritted his teeth , furrowing his brows as he tried to keep his mind still .

* * *

Almost an hour later, when the sun rays were finally expanding over the landscape, the group of airbenders and Kazu were now in the outdoor training area of the air temple.

People were now slowly getting up, with a few air acolytes shuffling here and there, getting the place ready for the day before the air masters came.

Kazu yawned and scratched his butt.

"Can I go back to bed now?...", he sighed, exhausted , with clearly visible bags under his eyes due to lack of was not how he thought his first training day was going to be like. However, Master Temujin again chose to ignore him and walked forward, addressing the whole class in general.

"Now that we're refreshed and awake from our morning hike, it's time for a balancing exercise. ", he proclaimed with a stern expression.

With a swirling motion of his hands, Temujin bent slightly at the knees before he airbent himself away from the group and towards the training field.

The training field they were occupying was a circular wooden court on which were mounted at least three dozen narrow wooden poles that rose ten feet high out of the ground. It slightly reminded Kazu of a weird looking pinball court,one of the new time-killing games the teenagers in Capital city used to play.

Gracefully, Temujin landed on one of the wooden poles, right in the middle of the court He had one leg crossed with the bottom of that foot facing skywards as he held his palms in a prayer position while he balanced on his other foot, not even swaying an inch.

"Balance and weightlessness is a key factor of airbending. One cannot truly obtain the feel of airbending if he cannot control his balance and poise. Now everyone else and imagine yourself to be as weightless as a feather.", Master Temujin instructed, watching them all.

At once, all the others around Kazu swirled their arms around their torsos and bended at the knees, similar to what Temujin had done , before they swirled their arms around like a fan, creating an air funnel of docile air currents around them, propelling them into the air and towards the poles, where they landed with a little bit of a tumble(unlike master Temujin) before they also stood stock still, hands in a prayer position.

"I would advise you to join us, Avatar Kazuhiko", Temujin added, glancing at Kazu.

"Uh...mkay..", Kazu muttered, his face slightly blank as he tried to figure out how he was going to get up there.

He licked his lips, furrowed his brows and walked forward, rubbing his hands together.

He was going to do this.

If a bunch of monks could with weird tattoos on their heads could do it, so could he.

At first, he tried to copy their movements, bending slightly at his knees before jumping up . But nothing he did seemed to work. Not even a puff of tried yet again and again, feeling more and more frustrated with each attempt.

Finally giving up, he chose to do it the hard way.

"This is stupid.", he muttered under his breath.

He walked closer to one of the poles and jumped up, hugging the pole close to him as he wrapped his legs around it. With a groan and a comical expression of strain, he began to haul himself up, inch by inch and wobbled slightly as he finally hoisted his upper body over and onto the top of the pole, where he had a little bit of trouble balancing himself, almost falling over a couple of times before he was finally able to hold himself steady.

"That was a lot easier in my head..", he panted as he swung his arms around, steadying himself.

Taking in a deep breath, Kazu folded his arms into a prayer pose and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself.

Barely a second later, he heard the sound of wind and flicked his eyes open just in time to see Master Temujin and the other airbenders airbend themselves back to the ground, their exercise done.

"Are you kidding me!? I just got up here!", Kazu cried out with a look of clear anguish, throwing his arms up to express his frustration.

In the process, he lost his balance, cartwheeling his arms around momentarily as he tipped over and fell hard on the wooden court, his face taking the full impact.

"Ahaow!...", the sixteen year old whined as he rubbed his reddened face, his eyes growing watery in pain.

Temujin cocked an eyebrow as some of the other airbenders snickered silently.

The bald airbending master walked towards the avatar as Kazu lay there, groaning.

"Once you have relieved yourself of the pain, join us in the east training yard. ", Temujin remarked as he whipped around and walked away with the rest of the class following suit, leaving Kazu sitting there on the ground, rubbing his reddened cheek.

* * *

The same procedure had borne on for a few days now and the only thing Kazu had mastered was being able to balance himself perfectly on a wooden pole and not think about food during meditation. He hadn't even been taught a basic airbending move yet and his frustration was growing. Airbending was of the major things he had been looking forward to when he was told that he was the avatar was getting to learn the other elements. But until now, diddly-squat was what he knew about airbending.

Kazu's lessons had finally progressed past the stage of balancing on poles and now he was standing at the start mark of some weirdly crafted obstacle course, built inside the indoor training facility of the temple.

All of his dormmates had gone on doing their higher level airbending with Master Jinoshi, a kind hearted female airbender in her late thirties, the youngest airbending teacher in the temple. Kazuhiko was now having private lessons with master Temujin, since the sixteen year old had been singled out as his weakest student.

The obstacle course was neatly crafted by talented earthbenders, who had bent the structure to look like it was out in the open.

Unlike the rest of the place, the course was not made of plain stone but of sandstone that the earthbenders had brought in when refurbishing the place after the hundred year war. Kazu heard someone say that the legendary earthbender Toph Beifong herself built the course with Avatar Aang when he was rebuilding the place.

The setup consisted of three layers of sandstone mounted on each other like a small cliffside, cut in random variations of lengths and looked like one of those step farming methods Kazu used to see back in the Fire nation.

There was a stone ramp that rose from where Kazu was standing, on the ground level, and it connected to a raised platform of wood that was mounted on four bamboo poles that stuck into the stone ground below.

And from this raised platform, another tinier wooden ramp led to an even higher landing on top of which were mounted two rotating fan like contraptions made of wood, spinning in a direction parallel to the ground. Each of these contraptions consisted of giant brass bells that was tied to the fan by a thick rope and it rotated slowly with the movement of the contraption.

After making your way past that, there was another wooden platform ,similar to the two previous ones, only that this one was a little ways off and you had to be a really athletic person or an airbender to make it to that platform.

Then, there were a couple of easy platforms where you were expected to build up pace before you reached your next obstacle, which was a dozen wooden poles sticking up from the pool of muddy water that surrounded the obstacle course.

Then, you had to climb up a bunch of sandstone ledges that were precariously placed in order to reach the top of the sandstone rock, which was the goal of the exercise.

And Kazu wasn't allowed to firebend during his training sessions, since Master Temujin thought it good for him to restrict his native element so that his body naturally adapted to using a foreign element.

Apparently, all the previous avatars had learnt their elements without having to trick their chi flow, but the elders guessed that since each avatar was different from the last, maybe his slower ability in learning the other elements was what differentiated him from Avatar Korra, who was said to have been able to bend (at least to some degree) water, earth and fire with ease by the age of five.

The second that Kazu heard the whistle blast from Temujin, he burst forward, his frustration fueling him.

He impatiently sprinted up the platform and into the midst of the rotating bells without thinking . He was through the first rotating bell but he tripped and the second bell hit him squarely in his face, and the sixteen year old landed straight into the brown ditch below , his face covered in much from his hair down.

"Well that was impressive...", a familiar female voice taunted in a bored fashion from the sideline.

Kazu groaned and picked himself off the ditch and back onto the start line, gritting his teeth. He knew who that voice belonged to. All the other times he had his training sessions, Kiara would go off to Beltunsh before Kazu returned from the morning hike with the other airbenders. But today, since it was raining outside, the irritating seventeen year old waterbender chose to stay in and 'watch the avatar get his butt kicked'. He didn't why but she had a knack for getting under his skin.

Ignoring her, Kazu trudged on.

With a burst of speed, he sprinted back up the path and this time, he made it past the rotating bells, feeling the gust of air pass him as the bells passed by him. Proud of his achievement, he stood there with a wide grin plastered on his slightly muck covered face.

He stood there a bit too long because the next thing he knew, he had been hit painfully across the head with a watermelon and he was in the ditch again, eliciting a fit of laughter from Kiara as she, Ryoshi and a bunch of other airbenders watched.

"Geahh!", Kazu yelped as he hit the ground , landing in the puddle with a splatter.

Wiping the muck off his face,he looked up to see Kenji and Nobu, wind blasting watermelons at Kazu with cheeky grins plastered on their faces.

"Maybe he's had enough for today.", Ryoshi murmured , feeling sorry for Kazu, who was picking himself up off the muck for the fourth time now.

"Hah! ", Kiara chortled as he wolfed down the juice from the mug she held .

"Laughing at another person's misery is not polite, Kiara.", Ryoshi chided.

"Since when have I been polite. And don't go all mystical on me. I've seen you hide a few snickers here and there at the expense of Lu-pen.", Kiara added with a smirk.

They both looked back to see Kazu manage past the rotating bells and this time, he actually began to dodge some of the water melons the pranksters were shooting at him, ducking and leaping along the way.

Soon, he made it past their offense of water melons to the stack of wooden poles sticking out from the ground and he began almost lost his balance on the edge of the railing before steadying himself. Then, he began to bounce from pole to pole, almost like an airbender. Everyone stood and watched as Kazuhiko made it past the wooden poles for the first time .

Everyone held their breath as he leapt up onto the final stage of the course.

Then, it all went south .

He had leapt up two ledges and twisting around, using the momentum, he grew ambitious and leapt up to a third ledge a bit too far off to reach if you didn't have airbending . And as he leapt off his ledge to grab onto the new one, due to the increased pressure he applied to reach such a distance, he lost his footing and the next second, he was tumbling back down, hitting his head and his butt on various ledges before he landed splat into the mucky pool at the bottom. This time, he didn't didn't bother getting up. He lay there groaning .

"Well...so much for that... I think I'm gonna go get some more Aloe water. You want some?", Kiara scoffed.

"Uh..no thanks.", Ryoshi replied, his gaze still fixed at the sixteen year old lying on the puddle.

A shrill noise echoed through the air as Temujin blew his whistle from the top.

"Up on your feet! If you don't get back on the track in the next ten seconds , I'm waking the whole class up earlier for the hike tomorrow!", Master Temujin called out.

Kazu felt his anger and frustration reach boiling point and he suddenly snapped.

He hauled himself onto his feet and glared straight up at the lanky figure of master Temujin standing at the top of the mound.

"I'M FINISHED! I NEVER WANTED TO BE THE AVATAR IN THE FIRST PLACE AND I'M NO GOOD AT THIS. SO STOP WASTING YOUR TIME ON ME!I'M OUT!", Kazu yelled, throwing all his frustration into his voice,shocking everyone present, including Kiara, who had stopped in her tracks to take in what was happening .

"What in the name of my air bison's stinky breath just happened?.", Ryoshi exclaimed in confusion as the muck covered Avatar stormed past them.

* * *

It was lunchtime and the dining hall was flocking with airbenders of different ages . Majority of them were engrossed in chatting with each other and most of them gossiping about how the Avatar had lost his temper at Master Temujin and had stormed out. Many of the stories had been greatly exaggerated, with some versions stating that the young avatar had shot a powerful fireball at the air master.

Most of the tables were already filled and the latecomers to the hall were standing in queue, holding a silvery metal plate as they waited for the lunch server to provide them with food. Among those standing in queue were Ryoshi and Kiara, with the former standing behind the pursed his lips and glanced around as the line slowly moved on.

"Hmm. I can't see Kazu anywhere...Come to think of it, we haven't seen him for over two hours now.", Ryoshi mumbled, a little troubled. He knew about the various enemies an Avatar can possess and didn't want Kazu to stick his head into something without thinking it through.

"Ah, give it a rest, Ryo. He's probably moping around somewhere or whining about his problems to somebody else. Just leave him to it. Besides. We didn't do nothing wrong. ", Kiara replied nonchalantly with a shrug, clearly not caring about the Avatar's whereabouts.

"He's gotta still be around here somewhere. Nobody saw him leave the temple.", Ryoshi replied as the line moved forward and Kiara held out her plate for the lunch lady to place the leaves and vegetables on.

"I don't know much about that but did ya hear some of the stories these guys cooked up about the Avatar's tantrums? I heard Nora say that he went into the Avatar state or something... Hah! I mean, for a couple of noble and peaceful monks, you guys are big time gossipers.", Kiara chortled as she moved on towards the juice canister and Ryoshi held out his plate for his serving of the food.

"Jeez... ", Ryoshi simply stated with a huff as she told him this.

"And would you stop antagonizing Kazuhiko? I mean, sure he bumped into you a couple days back but the poor guy's alone in a new place and doesn't know anybody that well yet. Plus, he _just_ found out that he's the Avatar. I mean, how would you have reacted if you came home one day and some old men told you that?", Ryoshi chided at Kiara for her immature behavior.

"Oh shut up, Ryo. Stop acting like you're his mom. And honestly, If somebody told me I was the Avatar, I would've been pretty pleased. There's a few bunch of ladies at my dance class that I'd like to lay the elemental smackdown on.", Kiara retorted.

Ryoshi let out a tired sigh as they both sat down next to each other at the end of one of the long, rectangular tables.

"Fine. But I'd advise you to cut him some slack. At least...try to be nice to him.", Ryoshi added .

"Hey, I'm just a simple girl with simple needs. And what I need right now, Is for you to get out of my face.", Kiara huffed as she stuffed her mouth with noodles, eating in a slightly unceremonious manner.

Ryoshi cast her an incredulous look due to the way she was stuffing herself.

"What? I'm a growing girl!", Kiara defended herself, seeing his expression.

"Um... Anyway.. I'm going to go search for the guy after. You wanna come with?", Ryoshi asked, deciding to change the topic.

"Nah. I got better things to do with my day off than chase after the whiny Avatar.", Kiara waved him off.

* * *

Kazuhiko sat in the statue room of the air temple, sitting a few feet away from the seven foot tall milky white marble statue of Avatar Korra. He sat with his knees hugged close to his chest,a bundle of mixed feelings swirling up inside him. He hoped that the statue simply came to life and gave him some valid advice on how to deal with all this. After all, no one would understand the position he was in besides someone who had actually been there. But Korra's stoic face simply stared ahead, wearing the same expression as all the other Avatars.

"Korra...If..I could just talk to you..", Kazu muttered as he solemnly stared up at her gaunt reply came. He had been stupid to hope for help from a statue.

All his life, he had his sister to dump all the responsibility on and now, all of a sudden, he felt alone in this strange land, surrounded by strangers who only saw him as 'the Avatar'.

"Hey.. You didn't come for lunch.", a familiar voice remarked from somewhere in the statue room . Looking around, Kazu found the figure of Ryoshi walking up towards him from behind the statue of an earth nation avatar.

"Or for sparring practice or for arguing with Kiara, which seems to be your normal hobby nowadays.", he added, sitting down next to Kazuhiko as the sixteen year old acknowledged his presence.

Kazu let out a frustrated sigh.

"I'm sorry.", Kazu whined, throwing his hands up into the air.

" Temujin... tends to be a slightly stuck up and stubborn guy ..But once you get to know him...then he really is stuck up and stubborn .", Ryoshi said nonchalantly, catching the other's eye.

Sensing the tone of humor in Ryoshi's voice, Kazu chuckled.

"Poor guy's got a lot of pressure for the white lotus to turn you into an airbending master in a short time. And honestly speaking, I think he just trying to make you the best Avatar that you can be. He just ...has a weird way of showing it.",Ryoshi continued on.

"Don't worry. You'll get the hang of airbending soon. Maybe it's because your natural element is all about fierce and aggressive stances and airbending is all about flow and calm movement. Maybe your body just needs to adapt to the different style of chi flow .", Ryoshi said, spinning his metal gliderstaff in his other hand.

"Yeah..Or maybe I just can't airbend at all.", Kazu said begrudgingly, letting his head hang.

"If I were my aunt Jinora, this is where I'd offer some spiritually enlightening stuff about inner peace or something...", Ryoshi replied as Kazu cocked an eyebrow at him.

"But it's just me you got right now..and all I can tell you is that...the first step to accomplishing something is believing that you can do it. Do that and you're halfway there.", he completed.

"Henh..You're starting to sound a lot like my big sister.", Kazu chortled, feeling slightly better as Ryoshi smiled at him.

"Come on. Maybe a little fresh air might do ya good.", Ryoshi added as he led the way towards the Air bison stable.

* * *

"Whao! I've never been this close to the sky spirits before!", Kazu exclaimed with an amazed expression plastered on his face. His eyes were wide open and his mouth stretched from ear to ear. He reached out to try and touch the small herd of translucent, brightly colored sky spirits as they rode past them on Taka's back.

Ever since Avatar Korra had re-opened the spirit world to the material world, the spirits had flooded through in plenty and mankind had learnt to map and classify certain spirits based on behavioral traits. For example, spirits that only could be found in forests or in trees were called as the terrestrial spirits while those that were mostly found high above in the skies were called the sky spirits. The terrestrial spirits tended to be more larger,bulkier and less friendly than their land or sky counterparts.

Just then, a few of the sky spirits, the size of one's fist ,chirped merrily at Kazu and flew straight through his body, sending a slightly warm feeling down his spine.

"I think they like you.", Ryoshi chuckled from his spot, on top of Taka's head with his hands on the air bison's reins.

Kazu's bangs were swept of his face and his loose, saffron and yellow airbender clothing billowed in the wind as the air bison flew calmly over the vast expanse of spirit wilds below. The spirit wilds hadn't fully taken over the world yet so you couldn't see the sight if you were someone who was brought up in a metro city, like Kazu was. So for him, seeing such a sight for the first time was breathtaking. Once you get used to it, the spirit wilds really were beautiful.

"I often come up here whenever I feel like blowing off some steam. It's peaceful up here.", Ryoshi sighed as , breathing in the atmosphere around them.

"You get angry?", Kazu chortled, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. In the time he had know the twenty-one year old airbender, not once had Kazuhiko seen him lose his temper.

"Believe it or not.",Ryoshi replied.

/

A few minutes in, Kazu began to feel them lowering and looking down, he noticed that the ground was growing nearer and nearer.

"Um.. Why're we stopping?", he perked up.

"There's a watering hole up head. Air bison love to go there and relax while the mothers feed their babies. Taka must be feeling thirsty. ", Ryoshi elaborated.

When they finally reached the place, Kazu gasped softly as he stared at the natural beauty of the place. It was like a pristine oasis of grassy land outlining a clear blue lake located in the middle. The spirit wild trees encroached towards the area but did not cross the line of shade bordering the grasslands.

The sun's light bounced off each blade of grass , lighting up the area in it's warm glow. The plantation in the area danced as they swayed to the eastbound winds that softly blew across the was a clear, blue lake in the middle of this oasis, with water so clear that you could count the pebbles lying on the lake bed.

As Taka landed stiffly with a thud, there was a perturbed look on Ryoshi's face as he airbent himself onto the ground.

"Hmm..That's strange. Usually this watering hole is teeming with herds of air bison. There's not a single one in sight. ".

"Who knows? Maybe they just changed their migration route. ", Kazuhiko suggested, jumping down from the saddle and giving Taka a pat on his snout, to which the air bison responded by running his burgundy tongue over Kazu from head to toe, covering him in slime.

"Urghh...Gross...Did anyone tell you your breath stinks, big guy?", he scoffed to the air bison as he wiped off the saliva with a disgusted look on his response, Taka simply opened his gigantic mouth and let out a bored grunt.

"Hm...Maybe they did go someplace else..but that's never happened before.", Ryoshi drifted off thoughtfully.

Turning around, he cocked an eyebrow as he spotted Kazuhiko doing some weird swirling and acrobatic motions with his body.

"Um. Whaaatr're you doing?"Ryoshi inquired incredulously.

"Trying to airbend .", Kazu retorted, punching the air out in front of him in vain.

"You need to be patient. It may take time, since the bending movements are completely different from you native element. My guess is that you will find earthbending the easiest to learn, since both fire and earthbending involves aggressive stancing and strong motions. ", Ryoshi said as he cupped a bit of the water from the lake and began to drink.

At that moment, Kazu remembered how he had accidentally earthbent a slab of the ground at one of those goons who were harassing that kid back at the Capital city pier.

"Hmm..But all the animals are gone around here. It's strange. It's almost as if ...they're deliberately avoiding this place. ", Ryoshi continued thoughtfully.

"Why?", Kazuhiko inquired, washing his own face in the cool, pristine waters of the lake.

"I'm not sure. ", Ryoshi muttered, his brows furrowed as he gazed around, trying to figure out why the usually populate oasis was void of any form of fauna.

Just then, something caught their attention. It was a sound of someone crying, running in their direction. Looking around, they spotted the figure of a young boy, no more than eight years old, sprinting in their direction with his eyes bloodshot, evident that he was the source of the crying noise.

His hair was disheveled , as if someone had attacked him . His knobbly knees looked like he was almost about to break down again. The rags of clothing he wore had been torn in pieces and there was evidence of struggle. Someone had obviously rattled the boy up.

"H-help! Please! Y-you have to h-help!", the boy croaked out, pleading with the two of them when he reached them.

"Hey. Clam down. What's wrong?", Ryoshi said in a calming voice, kneeling down to his height.

The boy wiped his tears and coughed, trying to calm himself.

"P-please. They came out from nowhere and ..and took my catdeer away. They beat me up and threatened me not to follow. I-I don't know where he is or what happened to him. ", the boy stammered .

"Who?", Kazu asked.

"S-six men . Some wearing Bison fur.", the boys coughed, rubbing his eyes.

"Animal wranglers.", Ryoshi clarified, standing back up with a determined expression.

"Who?", Kazu repeated,this time not understanding who these 'wranglers' were.

"Poacher. Hunters. Men who gather up animals who are valued for some asset they possess or something like that and sell them. They don't care if the animal is endangered or not. All they care about is the have many cases in the local areas lately.", Ryoshi elaborated as he gripped his gliderstaff.

"We'll help. Take us to where you were attacked. ", Ryoshi replied to the boy, who smiled thankfully at the two of them.

"Taka,stay here. Keep a lookout. If you see anyone coming who's not us, don't hold back. Show em what you're made of.", Ryoshi said firmly to his air bison and it grunted as if to say it understood before it returned to munching on the grass.

* * *

"This was where I got attacked and Nulan was taken. ", the boy said nervously, indicating to a spot beneath one of the trees, deep in the thickets of the spirit wilds.

They had only reached the place after a fifteen minute walk from the clearing where Taka grazed peacefully.

Grumpy looking tree spirits of different colors watched them with boring eyes, perched on the branches, as the three humans scoured the area for clues on where the boy's animal could've been taken.

Kazu began to feel his impatience growing due to a lack of progress .

Then, all of a sudden, the distinct sound of a distressed air bison echoed through the air. Upon hearing the noise, both Kazuhiko and Ryoshi glanced at each other in shock and then took off, racing back down the way they came.

When they finally reached the clearing , Ryoshi's huge air bison was nowhere to be found. It was like he had simply vanished into thin air.

"Um...You think he just decided to go pee?", Kazu inquired, scratching his head, a little bewildered.

"Taka doesn't care about manners. He just goes wherever he likes to. ", Ryoshi replied in a matter-of-fact type of voice, his brows furrowed as he glanced around the grassy landscape. Then, a look of shock shot onto his face as his eyes widened .

"Look! Taka's foot marks! It looks like a struggle over there's some footprints!", Ryoshi exclaimed, pointing towards the appropriate spots.

"Where do you think he went?", Kazu asked, a troubled look on his face as he scratched his head.

"I dunno. Let's help the boy find his catdeer first. That might lead us to Taka. Let's just hope we manage to get there before they do something harmful to him.", Ryoshi remarked, a disturbed and furious look on his tried to mask the distress in his voice but it was clear.

Both of them then turned to the boy, only to find that the little crying boy was nowhere to be found.

"Uhhhh I was pretty sure he was just behind us...Wasn't he?", Ryoshi remarked with a confused expression, not understanding what had happened, being the slightly naive person that he was.

But Kazu's face went blank when the realization hit him like a raging komodo-rhino, he should've suspected it. After all, he himself had run similar scams on the streets back in the city. A random little kid running in crying out of the woods was a bit too dramatic.

"No use calling him. I'm guessing that little brat was with the wranglers. He was the bait to get us to split off from Taka. ", Kazu said with a snort.

Ryoshi stared at him blankly in disbelief. He couldn't believe such a small kid could be so conniving.

"Come on. Maybe they've not gone that far. We could ...Um..", Kazu drifted off mid sentence as he noticed his companion was not following through.

In his confusion, Kazu saw Ryoshi lay down his gliderstaff and sat down in a meditation form on the grassy surface.

"Wha-What're you doing?", Kazu blurted out with an incredulous look on his face.

" My spiritual connections may not be as strong as my aunt Jinora . But I can still try and use the flow of spiritual energy in the wilds to locate the wranglers. Let's hope they are still in the wilds as we speak. ", Ryoshi elaborated before shutting his eye to focus.

"Ohmmmmm. ", Ryoshi let out, confusing Kazu as to what the airbender was upto.

"OOOOhmmmmm.", Ryoshi spoke again with his eyes shut.

Kazu watched , a little perturbed as the airbender sat in the meditation pose, his knuckles lightly touching each other and his elbows bent out to his sides, making weird noises.

Barely a minute into his meditation, Ryoshi let out a frustrated sigh and hunched over, opening his eyes.

"This...isn't working. This forest isn't spiritually charged.", Ryoshi groaned.

Before Kazu could reply, a tree spirit spat back at Ryoshi.

"YOU'RE the one that's not spiritually charged, Human!", the brownish spirit huffed at the apparent insult.

It was tall enough upto Kazu's waist from his feet down(if measured) and it had a very bulbous pot belly that moved around like jelly each time the spirit moved 's keen eyes glared at the two of them as it's slightly pig-like snout wriggled.

"Hey, Shut up! I can usually do this!", Ryoshi huffed back in defense, yelling at the spirit as a thought struck Kazu.

"Wait a second.", Kazu interjected.

"What!?", both Ryoshi and the spirit yelled in chorus , both of them annoyed at being interrupted.

"Mister tree spirit. Um... You guys see everything that goes on in the forest right? .", Kazu replied, putting up his most polite face. Ryoshi had told him all about how easily angered these tree spirits could get and Ryoshi was too troubled by his missing bison to think clearly.

"Hmph. At least you humans can get something right!..Yes we do.", the spirit huffed, eyeing Kazu with it's beady black eyes, it's porcupine like frills elongated on it's broad body.

"So.. Did you..happen to see a bunch of people taking a large, smelly air bison with them by any chance?", Kazu asked.

"Hm..Let me see...NOPE!", the spirit replied with a grunt, letting down Kazu.

Ryoshi raised his finger to give the spirit a piece of his mind before he was cut off by a female version of the grumpy tree spirit itself.

"We sure did!", the female spirit interjected with a sweet voice as it lowered down from the tree tops.

"Uhm...", Kazu added, a little confused as he eyed the male spirit and the female one .

"Did you have to tell em?", the male groaned.

"Oh shut up, my husband's not usually like this.", the female responded and Kazu and Ryoshi guessed that these two were like a strange married spirit couple or something.

"Um..so.. Which way did they...?", Ryoshi added , a little impatiently.

"Oh! Right! They headed down that way through the banyan-grove bend.", the female voice directed them, pointing eastward .

"Thank you. Um.. Mister and Mrs. spirit. ", Kazu replied as Ryoshi bolted off in the designated direction, hoping his bison was bowed and ran after him.

"What a nice boy that Avatar is.", the female spirit mumbled as she waved after them.

" Pesky humans.",the grumpy male spirit huffed as they both turned away.

/

As the two of them hid atop a rocky ledge, they peeked out to see a massive moving truck stationed in a clearing, a few feet away from the roadway. They spotted a few men chatting around.

"Someone seems to be a bit cranky today.", Kazu whispered, eyeing Ryoshi.

"Hey! Anyone messes with my bison, they mess with me!", Ryoshi hissed back with an angry face that seemed slightly then turned his attention back to the men.

"Those are wranglers from the looks of it, they've got a load of endangered species that should pick up the interest of the local forest ranger.", Ryoshi whispered as his brows furrowed in anger.

"Great. Let's go kick their butt. I've been wanting to do some proper firebending practice for a while now.", Kazu mumbled back, rubbing his palms together excitedly.

"No. We can't risk them seeing us. We've gotta work out a plan to get the animals out somehow.", Ryoshi replied, trying to come up with a plan.

Just then, the driver's door of the truck flung wide open and the kid from before leapt out, munching happily on an apple in his hand. He then proceeded to walk towards one of the adults and began conversing with him before they burst began chuckling, with the man rubbing his hand on the boy's messy mop of a hairdo .

"That little double-crossing brat is so dead..", Kazu whispered through gritted teeth as the two of them glared at them from their hiding area.

Kazu saw animals and species of various types all caged or collared , loaded in three separate cargo bogeys atop the main truck.

The men were gruffy looking, uncouth , with their hair matted in locks that ran all the way, hanging towards their hip bones. They , well most of them, sported thick beards, not the long ones, but the shorter ,less groomed ones, that accentuated their repulsive appearance. Overall, they looked like they hadn't had a proper bath in days, maybe weeks.

Then , there was a disturbance in the area and a second later, came four men, grabbing onto thick ropes with all the strength they had, holding down a struggling Taka under tight restrainers that were tied around the air bison's and Ryoshi watched as the distressed airbison groaned and tried to kick out at the men in vain.

"They've got Taka!", Ryoshi hissed with a trouble look.

" Listen. I'm gonna go in for a closer look . You try and come up with a plan with that logical brain of yours. Wait here.", Kazu whispered to Ryoshi and before the latter could stop him, the Avatar was already on his way, silently parkouring through the wilderness, jumping and sliding under spirit vines , outlining the clearing that the wranglers were present in.

Kazu was used to parkouring around building tops but he was a complete novice in terms of the spirit wilds and it unfortunately his lack of familiarity with the environment showed through in the most damning of times.

He had skipped over a horde of mossy emerald vines before he finally tripped over, and landed flat on his back , splat in the mud and he began to skid down the slope, finally coming to a halt right at the feet of one of the wranglers.

" Um..Hey there, fellas! Nice day isn't it? ", Kazu chuckled meekly from his place on the floor.

"What the...", the gruff man muttered before the kid who had scammed Kazu and Ryoshi earlier came around the corner of the large vehicle and cried out as his eyes lit up in recognition.

"IT'S ONE OF EM!",the boy wailed out loud and the men seemed to understand who 'em' was as they all instantly ripped out chunks of earth from the ground. Earthbenders.

Kazu yelped and leapt up and out of the way, cartwheeling backwards and simultaneously shooting balls of flames at the guy in the process.

Ryoshi, in the wilderness, clapped a palm to his forehead in dismay as he saw the mess the Avatar had gotten into.

"So much for stealthy.", the airbender cursed before leaping into action, swinging his gliderstaff around his shoulder to send out a wave of strong air currents that struck a few of the wranglers on their back, knocking the unsuspecting men straight off their feet.

Kazu was getting pressed down by two metalbenders among the group , forcing him to protect himself by creating a wall of fire around him.

The two metal benders were wearing detachable silvery rectangular metal plates around their wrists and biceps and they began bending them out and shooting them at Kazu. These pieces of metal shot straight through the wall of flame , forcing the avatar to duck around, dodging the metal weaponry before four of the metal plates found it's target, latching onto Kazu's wrists and ankles. Once the men realized they had pinned him, they changed their stance, grasping at the air and moving their arms in a clockwise direction, that resulted in Kazu getting lifted off his feet, upside down. They then shot their arms forth , sending the avatar flying into a tree trunk behind him.

The metal benders advanced on him as the Avatar lay there, groaning .

There was a loud ' _thud_ ' noise and a second later , Kazu opened his eyes to see the Ryoshi walking up towards him with his metal staff placed on his shoulder. Getting up, Kazu found that the airbender had knocked out the two metalbenders, leaving their bodies crumpled on the floor in a heap.

"You know, when you said you were going for a closer look, I didn't think you meant this close.", the airbender chided hotly as he held out his hand to help Kazu up.

"Hey, I'm a human. I make mistakes.", Kazu defended himself as he accepted the help.

Just then, one of the men rounded the corner and his eyes lit up in rage as he found the two intruders.

"They're here! Let's get em lads!", the man roared as he planted his legs firmly into the ground and punched out in front of him, ripping out a slab of the ground.

"Lookout!", Kazu yelped and as Ryoshi ducked, the sixteen year old avatar shot out a fire ball at the piece of rock that the wrangler had hurled, bursting it into dust. Ryoshi then flipped over in his spot, sending an air funnel at the man, sending him flying out of view as his comrades came running around the corner.

"You go free the animals first. I'll hold these guys off. ", Ryoshi said, sending a wind whip in the direction of the advancing men, forcing them to stand their ground and shoot up a wall out of the ground to parry the wind attack.

Kazu nodded and sprinted off to unlock the cages as Ryoshi kept the men busy.

Kazu, being reasonably streetsmart, was able to pick off three out of seven cages with ease with a wicker lying around before he felt a large hand grasp him by the collar from behind and hoist him up . He was harshly turned around, coming face to face with the meanest looking thug of the lot.

He had large,bulging arms that was flecked with hair all around. He stood at a height of about seven foot and his strong jawline was further emphasized by the black, scruffy beard the guy sported and his short buzzcut accentuated his mean demeanor.

"Uh..Heh-Heh. It-It's not what it looks like.", Kazu replied with a weak chuckle.

The man growled as he held Kazu hanging by grasping onto both his fists at the same time.

Kazu tried to firebend at the fellow by heating up his palm to an intense temperature. But the fellow appeared unfazed . Upon closer look, Kazu spotted insulation gloves that were stretched over his ginormous palms. Firebending would be ineffective against .

Then, as Kazu stared in shock, the man raised a menacing looking fist and sneered at him.

"Night-Night, firebending brat.", the man growled with a staunch voice.

Then, on instinct, the sixteen year old swung himself forward, hoisted his legs up and wrapped his torso around the man's large arm, and before he knew what he was doing, Kazu twisted his body along the arm and as he did so, a spiral of wind swirled around him , passing onto the man's arm and he involuntarily sent the surprised man flipping off his feet, crashing into a rock nearby , unconscious.

Kazu glanced down at his trembling hands in disbelief. He had actually done it. He had done airbending for the first time .

"Whoa..It...feels completely different.", Kazu whispered to himself in amazement before he thrust his open palm out in front of him, sending out a fragile gust of wind.

"Finally! We're in business!", he roared victoriously with an elated grin on his face.

Feeling uplifted at airbending for the first time after trying so hard, he kept going at it, not knowing how he was doing it, shooting out slightly weak blasts of air at the behemoth in front of him,until he had sent the man toppling over the ledge, crashing into a bunch of thorny bushes below .

As Kazu walked over to the cliff and glanced at the form of the groaning man in the shrubbery below, he tried to make sense of how he had done it, how he had airbent,but there was no logical explanation that came to his head.

Just then, he felt the earth crumbling beneath him and he whipped around just in time to see one of the men, an earthbender, punch the ground with his fist,roaring and as he did so,and the ground beneath Kazu cracked open giving way and the sixteen year old tumbled down, yelping, amidst the crumbling pieces of rock and debris , plummeting straight into the thorny bushes below( the drop was at least fifty feet).

" Aw Come on! NOT LIKE THIS.. AARRGHHH!", Kazu yelped in fright as he neared the thorns, closing his eyes shut , waiting for the pain of the thorns.

But it never came. What he instead felt was something soft and his eyes slightly, Kazu found himself flying flat on the giant bulbous belly of the seven foot wrangler.

Then man, who had just been on his way getting up, groaned and lay flat on his back again, giving up all efforts of getting up.

Kazu let out a sigh of relief as he lay there on top of the unconscious man whose skin seemed too thick for the thorns to pierce(the thorns underneath the man had broken on impact).

"Man, that was close.".

/

Ryoshi clambered on top of two fellows, using his airbending to stay light on his feet, tiptoeing around their heads, keeping his weight off of them before flipping over them and shooting an air whip at them ,catching them straight on the chest, sending them crashing into a spirit tree behind them . Upon impact, the tree shot out vines and wrapped them around the ankles of the men, holding them in place as they struggled and yelped to break free.

Just then, a capture net was shot a Ryoshi from behind him, intending to entrap the airbender for good. But the shockwaves of releasing the catch of the contraption traveled through the air and Ryoshi, being an airbending master, was able to pick up on the minute changes in airwaves. With his pupils dilated, he managed to duck under it, twisting on the spot before thrusting his palm forward, shooting a precise air blast at the man, sending him flying back ten feet.

"Never mess with an airbender's bison", Ryoshi remarked with bravado in his voice as he looked down at the unconscious man who had tried to sneak up on him .

Ryoshi then sprinted to the cages to free the animals trapped within. Once free, the animal bolted or flew out, grunting in gratitude to the airbender on their way out. Ryoshi then rushed over to a cooing Taka, still trapped under the ropes and began shooting out razor edged wind whips at the hick ropes, cutting them open inch by inch.

As he was working on freeing his air bison, Ryoshi lost focus on his surroundings and this was one of his main weaknesses, pointed out time and time again by Master Temujin during his years learning the bending arts. He never pay attention to his surroundings, similar to another former female airbender student.

Unbeknownst to him, the scamming kid from before and the leader of the poachers were slowly creeping up behind him, both of them intending on catching the airbender off guard and put him down.

/

Kazu dusted his airbender robes and squinted his eyes ,looking up , trying to figure out a way to get back up there .

Taking in a deep breath, he shot out bursts of flames out of his knuckles and heels , sending him shooting forwards.

Halfway through his maneuver, he almost lost his balance and crashed onto one of the rocky ledges on the way up . Hoisting himself , he managed to clamber onto it's edge and hauled himself up.

He then grunted and tried to leap upward and involuntarily, created an air burst underneath his feet, sending him flying upwards to his shock . He threw his arms around wildly as he paused mid air ,just moments before he would plummet back down and he managed to claw at one of the ledges, hanging off the rock with his fingers.

"Whoa...", Kazu panted in amazement as he lowered his head and glanced down at his own feet and at the height he had gained from ground level now.

Slowly, repeating the motion,he made it to the top ledge, from where he had fallen down and he clambered on top, panting in the effort as he looked up.

"Awh monkeyfeathers...", Kazu muttered in frustration.

The kid who scammed them and the guy whom Kazu registered as the gang leader were creeping up on Ryoshi, who had his back turned to them and the man was staying silent, aiming a razor edged, metal plate at Ryoshi's back.

On instinct, Kazu leapt forward and shot out a crude form of an air whip that caught the man squarely in his chest(before he could shoot his metal plate at Ryoshi), knocking him out on impact. The kid whipped around with a shocked look on his face, and seeing Kazu, tried to make a mad dash towards the forestry. Kazu shot a fire ball at him, missing his head by mere inches, making the boy freeze in his tracks.

"I wouldn't do that If I were you, buddy.", Kazu taunted.

Ryoshi finally cut through the ropes and turned around at the scuffle behind him to see the lone boy standing inches behind him with a shocked expression on his face, gaping at the form of Kazuhiko, who was standing in a firebending pose.

"What the heck just happened?!", the airbender scoffed, looking around as his airbison shook off his restraining net.

/

"So how did you do it? How'd you unlock your airbending?", Ryoshi inquired as the two of them were riding back on a disgruntled Taka. The air bison was grunting his disapproval at the day's activities. It was not a happy experience to have yourself wrangled by seven men.

"Yeah..I don't know how... Exactly... You see, I'm kinda figuring that out myself actually. It just...sorta happened.", Kazu shrugged.

"Well..It took you a couple of days but at least you're getting there finally. I heard that Avatar Korra had most trouble with airbending. Maybe you'll find airbending easier to learn than some of the other elements.", Ryoshi reassured him with a smile.

"Great..", Kazu groaned, lying back flat on the wicker saddle with his limbs sprawled out wide at the thought that the hardest element to learn for him was yet to come.

* * *

The next day, the other airbenders were watching with shocked looks on their faces as Kazu began to easily duck and dodge through the watermelon barrage shot at him by Kenji as he tried to weave his way through the obstacle course. Even master Temujin watched with a surprised look on his face as Kazuhiko made it past the watermelon section, sprinting towards the many wooden poles that stuck out over the pond of brown muck.

"I'll bet he's gonna end up with muck all over him again.", Kiara scoffed with a smirk on her face.

"You might have to eat your words on that.", Ryoshi chuckled and pointed to the sight, leaving the waterbender with an open jaw as she saw the avatar bounding over the poles with much more ease than previously, using his newly unlocked airbending ability to tip toe over the obstacle, reducing his pressure as he did so,bounding from pole to pole, making it past the section.

As everyone watched, Kazu looked up, furrowed his brows and used the same technique as he had used the previous day , creating a cushion of air underneath his feet, sending him flying skyward , helping him to leap over four ledges at a time and within ten seconds, Kazuhiko was almost finished with the course and everyone watched in amazement as he took the final leap, sending himself flying upward and over the top ledge, landing softly on his feet while his hands slowly spun in a clockwise motion(helping him regain his balance), next to Temujin, who had an amazed look on his middle aged face.

"How in the...What the...You guys cheated!", Kiara huffed, rubbing her eyes to make sure that they hadn't deceived her.

"I believe somebody owes somebody else some cold hard cash.", Ryoshi coughed.

Kiara shot him a dirty glare for a few prolonged seconds before finally relenting, digging into her pant pockets , retrieving a few notes of Yuan, slamming the money into Ryoshi's hand, which the airbender pocketed with a smile on his face. Then, the two of them turned back to see the others rushing over towards Kazuhiko.

"I guess that he's a quick learner.", Ryoshi added with a smile as they watched on.

* * *

The rectangular speakers within the spacious containment cell that held Ta-lin screeched as the voice of one of the lotus sentries spoke through.

"The Warden's on his way here. You know the drill,Ta-lin.", the voice remarked as Ta-lin looked up at the speakers with a small smirk playing on the corners of her mouth.

She moved from her position next to her plate of food and walked over to the center of the hall, on the slightly raised platform and sat down before she clanked her chains thrice to alert the sentries that she was sound echoed through the cell for a few seconds until there was complete silence.

Then, there was a loud, clicking noise that vibrated through the air as the containment door slid open to reveal three pairs of feet. Two were in the traditional, navy blue lotus sentry boots while the third one was a bit different.

As the door finally slid open the full way, the faces of the Warden and the two lotus sentries came into view.

The Warden lotus , ironically, was a non-bender. He was a gruffy looking man with a slightly visible belly. He wore no helmet and you could see his long, shoulder length, silky greying hair. It was evident that this guy spent a lot of time attending to his hair. He had a squarish face with a prominent ,black, bushy mustache with it's edges twirled upward, complimented by a thick sideburn that was drawn way below his ear level. One of the latest fashion trends. His bulbous nose scrunched as the stench of the unfinished food wafted through the air.

He wore a grey, sleeveless uniform with white collars that stuck up, hiding his neck from view. He wore puffy, black pants that were inserted into his red, knee high boots.

His squinty blue eyes peered at the prisoner as he and the other two sentries walked forward.

"Good day.", the warden remarked with a proud voice. Ta-lin remained quiet, simply glaring up at the fellow from her spot.

"Still...lacking in the manners department, I see.", the man responded.

"I had faith that you would warm up to me in our interactions for over the years. I see that I may have misjudged you. ", the Warden sighed. He then turned to the sentries and nodded.

"Give her the usual treatment.", the warden replied and the three of them turned to leave when Ta-lin finally spoke with a raspy voice.

"I was taught that faith is belief based on an absence of factual knowledge and it invites disaster.", the airbending convict scoffed. This unusual response caught the attention of the three men.

"And what is that supposed to mean?", the warden replied.

"It means that if you construct an ideal based on only what you think you see, then you blind yourself to the various possibilities.", Ta-lin replied as as she spoke, a smirk stretched across her lips. She had them right where she wanted.

"What the heck does that mea...", one of the sentries scoffed before he and the other two entrants noticed that Ta-lin's chains and metal casings were beginning to vibrate at a rapid speed, creating the distinct sound of metal creaking as it expanded.

Ta-lin was using her airbending in her palms to alter the air pressure within her metal arms cuffs that encased her palms whole .

The men watched in shock as the casings began to vibrate and increase in size, getting bigger and bigger gradually, with the metal creaking in strain.

Then, as the three men watched in disbelief, the metal cuffs that encased her hands simply imploded and broke off, freeing her hands.

Before the sentries had gathered their senses to react, Ta-lin moved her arms around in a rapid, fluid motion, sending powerful air blasts at the men, knocking them out just as one of them had lit their palms on fire to attack her.

As the warden watched his sentries fall so easily to a convict who was thought to have been restrained properly, the female airbender simply smirked at the pompous fellow.

"Let's just say that your faith was in bad taste, warden.", Ta-lin remarked coolly with a mad grin on her face before she shot a similar attack on him, knocking him out.

/

The buzzer rang out , alerting the sentries posted on the other side of the containment cell that the warden was done inspecting the prisoner . Immediately, the two metal bending guards reached out , grasped thin air and began pulling down , bending the metal chains that opened the door.

Slowly, as the door slid open with the chains clinking, it wasn't the warden or the other two sentries that was standing ready. It was, in fact, an uncouth looking, black haired female airbender that was sneering at the shell shocked guards with the buzzer device held in her hand.

Immediately, one of the metal benders ripped out a slab of the ground and began shooting it at Ta-lin, forcing her to summersault over aerially to avoid it while his companion reached to his black, hand-held radio transmitter that was attached onto his uniform belt .

"CONTAINMENT BREACH! I REPEAT! CONTAINMENT BREACH!", the sentry yelped , alerting the other twelve sentries within the prison that the prisoner had escaped.

As he watched, Ta-lin flipped over his companion, to his rear side, and kicked out an air blast that met his spine, forcing him unconscious.

Hurriedly, the man shot out two metal plates at the woman from his wrists, but she easily maneuvered around them and to his shock, she formed air pockets around the plates, bringing them under her control.

"A bender is only limited by their imagination.", Ta-lin remarked with a dangerous smirk before she punched out, sending the plates shooting back at the shocked man, hitting him on the head, sending him stumbling back, giving her enough time in his lack of balance to rush forth and land a solid knee kick on his groin area.

As the sentry lay there in pain, the alarms rang out , Ta-lin knocked out the man and glared around, gritting her teeth. She knew they would be prepared for her. But they didn't know that she would be prepared for _them._ She had been locked up here for a long time. She basically knew almost every sentry here . She knew their weak spots.

/

The remaining twelve sentries, seven men and five women, stood in a semi circle formation, firmly in their respective elemental stances, waiting as the elevator light came on.

"Be careful. She's dangerous. Do not hesitate to engage!", the ranking officer yelled out to his compatriots.

A few seconds later, the elevator clicked and the double metal doors slid open, revealing the figure of Ta-lin, her hair sprawled in random directions.

"Now this is what I call a welcoming committee." the female airbender simply scoffed as the earthbender sentries shot their metal plates at her.

Using the same technique as before, Ta-lin brought the silvery plates under her control and shot them straight back out at their owner, knocking them down . Then, the firebenders(who were a little shocked at her skill) punched out flaming infernos at her, but she was light footed enough to spring out of harms way, using her airbending prowess to create an aircycle around her that sent her summersaulting over the heads of her attackers.

Landing on her hands, she bent her knees up to her chest level and sprang her feet back out behind her, bending at her waist area, shooting a powerful air blast that took out three of the men simultaneously.

Three of the female water benders formed a collective wave and shot it at Ta-lin, only for her to create and air boost under her feet , sending her flipping over the wave before she planted her feet on the ground. She then took a deep breath and clapped out in front of her, sending a dull air blast at the water benders, hitting them before they could bend out water to engage her again.

Two of the remaining male waterbenders drew out their element, forming a water cube that hovered in front of them and began shooting out ice bullets at Ta-lin, forcing her to create a transparent spherical wind shield around her, protecting her from harm.

Simultaneously, two firebenders launched out an attack on her, shooting on rapid, successive fireblasts, which she parried with wind blocks. Ta-lin didn't react, waiting for the opportune moment and when she found the opening, when the waterbenders were reloading, she shot out a solid wind blast at them from her protective wind sphere, hitting them head on, knocking them out.

Then, as the fire benders began shooting fire balls at her, she drew out her air sphere and stretched out her hands in front of her, shooting out a strong flow of continuous wind currents at them, extinguishing their flames and forcing them to claw on the ground to hold their footing, to no avail. They were blasted off their feet, flying int the concrete walls behind them and getting knocked out in the process.

The remaining two earthbender sentries, a male and a female, exchanged horrified glances as they saw the unconscious bodies of their compatriots around them. Then, the elevator doors behind them slid open again and the form of the singed warden with his clothes slightly torn groveled out. He too had a shocked look on his face as he saw the sight in front of then found the last two sentries standing there, glancing at him with an unsure expression.

"Well don't just stand there, GET HER!", the man yelled at his remaining two sentries.

Immediately, the two of them ripped out chunks of the ground beneath them and shot them at the convict, only to have her sweep under the attack , simultaneously shooting out a wind whip at their ankles, taking them out from under their feet before she shot another wind blast at their face while they were mid air momentarily, knocking them out on the spot due to the concussive impact.

Seeing that he was the last man standing, the warden tried to bolt forward at her, drawing out his silvery sword.

"You're not getting away!", the man roared as he charged at her.

Ta-lin simply snorted before she shot a wind whip at the sword, disarming the man . She then sliced her hand through the air, her palms out open , sending a wind slice at him, hitting him on the stomach, forcing him onto the ground, groaning in pain.

Ta-lin then turned to walk out before the warden's voice found it's way to her.

"You think you can just waltz outta here? Even if you make it out, they'll kill you. You're an international criminal.", the warden wheezed from his spot on the floor. Ta-lin didn't turn back but paused for a moment, standing in her spot.

"I believe that if something doesn't kill you, it only makes you stronger ... Good day, warden.", Ta-lin replied , not bothering to turn to face the man she was talking to before she blasted the twenty-foot tall front doors open and walked out , her dark silhouette against the white backdrop of the bright sunlight outside.

* * *

 **That's all for this chapter folks! So this was a homage to one of the previous avatar episodes. Hope you enjoyed reading it!**

 **Any suggestions and constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks for reading!**

 **Until next time, Avatar,Yip-Yip!**


	4. Chapter 4 - The Bandits Of Quan-Lao

REPLY TO REVIEWS:

Vergil Leonidas- Thanks!

Avatarangkorra- Thank you!

Korrasami4life- Thank you! I don't know if you can ship Kazu and Ryoshi, since they are spiritually related(with Ryoshi being Aang's great grandson), but okay.

AvatarAang- Thanks for the review! And I don't know about the past lives thing. I hadn't really planned on that but I'll see if it's plausible.

 **Legend Of Korra and all other 'Avatar' related Material are owned by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko**

 **BOOK ONE : ACCEPTANCE**

Chapter Four - The Bandits of Quan-Lao

* * *

 _Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring peace and balance to the world._

* * *

The small village of Quan-lao was situated almost on the edge of the eastern borders of the spirit wild forests and it was surrounded by hilly mountains, keeping the area secluded from any trade routes . It was almost a two hour drive away from Beltunsh and that was if you didn't mind driving your car through thickets of forestry. Most of the inhabitants of this village lived in poverty and many of them couldn't even purchase gasoline for their cars, due to it's inflating price. Plus, there were the corrupt regional ministers who imposed unreasonable taxes on them. Although the current Earth King himself was a very reasonable man, he was mostly oblivious to the corruption that occurred right under his very nose , one of the many downsides of having a constitutional monarchy .

Many of the people lived in mud and wooden houses and living quarters that seemed a world away from the concrete and metal towers like the ones you could see in Beltunsh. There weren't many households who owned a televarrick , with most of them using the old fashioned radios .

It was morning in Quan-lao and many of the people were about on the muddy streets, going about their daily routines. A woman was buying vegetables and fruits from the local vendor, an old vendor was selling cabbages(which no one seemed to buy) and a teenager was sweeping the stone steps that led to the entrance doors of the little restaurant owned by his widowed mother.

Just then, the sound of running motor came from the distance and a few seconds later, a silvery, heavy duty jeep came whirring down the roadway, sending up dust behind it as it raced towards the shops. Four husky looking men wearing distinct earth nation attire occupied the vehicle . They had their faces covered in black cloth masks that hid everything except their eyes from view.

Just like most earthbenders around, these guys had bulging arms and they had a stubborn, mean look about them as they looked around to see the people scampering to their homes and shutting their doors.

The Roving bandits.

All of a sudden, the jeep screeched to a halt just inches away from the boy who hadn't taken notice of the bandits arrival and he yelped back in shock , dropping his broom as he sprinted inside.

Three out of the four masked men leapt out of the jeep and trudged into the restaurant, carrying brown rucksacks with them .

Looking around, they weren't impressed.

The restaurant looked mostly empty, with no customers . The wooden chairs and desks were overturned, shelves were drawn open, empty, and the glass cupboard was shattered open, done by another batch of their group during the last raid.

The woman who owned the place stood behind the counter with a pleading expression on her face.

"Please! Leave us alone!", the woman remarked as her son rolled his hands into fists, rage boiling up inside him.

As the bandits searched the area, one of them suddenly turned around and dropped his gaze to the very counter behind which the woman was standing. He stamped his feet into the ground out in front of him and a ripple of earth moved from his feet , directed straight towards the wooden counter that broke open on impact, revealing a few sacks of food and the woman's last stash of money.

The bandits walked over, grabbed the bags and cackled with laughter as they walked back out with the loot.

"We _always_ get what we want ,lady!", one of them snorted loudly and began to walk away.

"That's ours! Give it BACK!", the woman's teenaged son yelled in rage and ripped out a small piece of the flooring before he shot it at the bandits.

Instinctively, one of them flipped around and redirected the sorry piece of earthbending back at the boy , catching him off guard.

The piece of concrete struck the boy straight in his abdomen area, forcing him onto his knees as he clutched at his stomach in pain.

"Piece of garbage.", the bandit remarked as the boy's mother rushed to his side and looked at him in concern.

The bandits then left the small restaurant, loading the bags into the jeep , leaving the mother and the boy with saddened faces .

* * *

The calm, cooling winds of the morning hour blew across the grasslands as colorful spirits of different sizes and categories moved across the landscape, some in a collective pack(such as the ones that were the length of one's forearm with tentacles that swiveled each time they moved, much like a jellyfish-coy) while some moved in their solitude.

The morning in the western air temple was like any other. The group had just finished their morning exercise and master Temujin stood in front of the class(who were seated on the floor in the lotus pose), as he gave them a lecture about one of the teachings of avatar Yangchen of the past culture.

"... And so, with no other choice, Avatar Yangchen decided to begin a fast to blandish the rivaling chiefs of the northern and southern water tribe to come into a diplomatic coalition. For almost six months, she did not eat or drink .And finally, on the hundred and twelfth day, the chiefs finally decided to put aside their differences and work together. This historic day has been celebrated ever since. Can any of you tell me what this day is called? ", Temujin remarked, stroking his beard as the many airbenders sat on the floor, with clear lack of interest written on their faces.

Suddenly, the hand of Lu-pen, a very timid looking airbending student, the only one weaker than Kazu himself at airbending, shot his hand up and began waving excitedly. Seeing this, Temujin groaned and pursed his lips.

"Anyone else want to participate in on our class discussion.. _besides_ Lu-pen, who has been answering every question", Temujin asked hopefully, glancing around the bunch of airbenders sitting on the floor, none of them meeting his eye.

Seeing no one answering, Temujin looked in Kazu's direction hopefully. However, the young avatar shrugged with an irritated expression on his face. He was sitting next to two girls who hadn't stopped gossiping in hushed tones all along. He had an inkling that they were talking about him. And he didn't like that.

"ooh!ooh!ooh!", Lu-pen squeaked in his spot, waving his arms around wildly. Finally giving up, Temujin nodded at him.

"The day of the lunar moon Yangchen festival.", Lu-pen chirped, looking around proudly at the others, who had no idea what the fellow was talking about.

"That is correct... Again.", Temujin sighed.

"Now.. At what grand event did Avatar Yangchen-", Temujin continued on before he was interrupted by master Lao as the airbender with the chinstrap goatee began speaking in hushed tones to Temujin, who listened all the while stroking his pointy beard. Nodding, the air master turned back to his class.

"It appears that I am needed elsewhere for urgent matters . Class dismissed!", Temujin remarked and with a swish of his flowing airbender robes, the bald man with the blue arrow tattoo on his head turned and walked away .

As Kazu was getting to his feet, stretching his back, he heard a familiar voice calling out his name .

"Hey Kazu! Over here!", Shenji called out from the far end of the yard. Kazu flashed a bright smile at his dormmates as he jogged upto them.

"What's up?".

"Me and some of the other guys were going to play some airball. You wanna join?", the teenaged airbender asked enthusiastically.

Kazu seriously considered the offer. He did love watching the game and he wanted to play it but he wasn't ready just yet. He may have unlocked his airbending recently but he hadn't even mastered the basic airbending stances yet. He just knew how to create offensive blasts of air. And he doubted that would help him play the game on their level.

"Gee. I'd love to ..but.. I uh.. got some things to do first.", Kazu replied instead,not wanting to embarrass himself again.

"Oh. Um. Okay. Well I guess I'll have to kick your butt some time later then!", Shenji joked with a challenging grin.

"Oh, hey, Shenji! You haven't seen Ryo anywhere , have you?", Kazu inquired, not having seen the airbender so far that morning.

"As a matter of fact, I have. He was just over at the stables with some other airbenders . Kenji's there too. ", the gleeful airbender yelled out as he bolted away to join his friends, who were impatiently waiting for him to join them in the airbending game.

* * *

As Kazu entered the stables, he instantly spotted Ryoshi , three other airbenders(including Kenji) and Kiara near Taka, loading ruck sacks and larger food packs onto the airbison's saddle.

Ryoshi was wearing a more aerodynamic version of his saffron airbender outfit with his metallic gliderstaff hung over his shoulder with a belt. The other three airbenders were wearing the maroon future industries wing suit that had a flap that could be pulled open to catch the wind and the airbenders could glide around just like they could with a gliderstaff. Kiara was wearing a more figure hugging sleeveless blue tanktop with a V-neck , paired with black leggings that wrapped around her legs and were inserted into her khaki boots that were cut just below her knee level.

"Hey. Where are you guys goin?", Kazu inquired with an inquisitive expression as he neared them.

"Oh hey. Good morning.", Ryoshi smiled as he threw up another sack to one of the other airbenders who caught it, standing on the saddle .

"We're going to a village nearby that had a recent bandit attack. We're taking some food and supplies over to help in whatever way we can.", Ryoshi elaborated .

Just then Kenji strolled by with an snobbish look on his face.

"Yeah. We airbenders are rather important folk around these parts. You gotta think twice before you mess with an airbender.", Kenji remarked pompously, throwing up his fists in a boxing pose as Ryoshi eyed him with raised eyebrows.

"Okay tough guy. You carry the rice stock. Here.", Ryoshi replied, slamming the heavy sack of stinking fish into Kenji's arms, forcing him to double over under it's weight before he walked away, glaring at Ryoshi with his nostrils flared comically.

"I see.", Kazu muttered. Just then, a thought hit him.

"Hey. I'm free right now. Master Temujin's got some other stuff to do right now. Maybe I could tag along and help you guys.", Kazu suggested with a toothy grin.

Just then, Kiara came strutting upto them, carrying a ruck sack in her hands, hugged to her chest . Once she neared them, she threw up the bag for the airbender on top to catch before she turned her attention to them.

" How's Temujin's airbending class going ? I hear it's supposed to be a _breeze._ ", Kiara remarked with a sly smirk at her joke as Kazu and Ryoshi looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Hah. You people don't have a good sense of humor. Not my diagnosis.", Kiara scoffed scornfully at the silent reactions from the twosome at her joke and climbed the ladder up onto Taka's saddle.

"I don't know...You are supposed to be in the temple at all times...", Ryoshi replied , furrowing his brows thoughtfully. Just then, one of the other airbenders who were passing by interjected, offering his opinion.

"Ah let him come. We'll be gone and back in no time. Besides, He's the Avatar. It's his job to help people.", the airbender remarked as he airbent himself up onto Taka's saddle.

Ryoshi let out a defeated sigh.

"Alright. You can join . Just don't wander off when we get there. And don't tell anyone who you are.", Ryoshi replied as he airbent himself up.

Kazu had a grin plastered on his face as he created an air cushion under his feet, shooting him up and onto the saddle.

* * *

A fish vendor sat in the shade of his stall in the village of Quan-lao, with his tongue out , wheezing in the heat of the golden sun that scorched over the lands. He wore a brown straw hat on his head and the middle aged man had a drowsy look about him as he felt the soft breeze of the pedestal electric fan that was mounted in a corner in his shop.

He felt his throat getting unbearably dry and grabbed the bottle of water on his table, gulping it down. Just then, he caught sight of a large, black speck moving in their direction and his eyes lit up with joy as he recognized it.

"LOOK! THE AIRBENDERS ARE HERE!", he yelled at the top of his voice, running onto the muddy street and pointing to the sky so that bystanders knew where to look. Sure enough, everyone present caught the familiar sight of an airbison flying towards them, descending from the blue skies.

"You guys sure are popular around these parts.", Kazu remarked, seeing the reception they were receiving as they lowered down, at east twenty feet from ground level. Ryoshi simply grinned in response.

As Taka lowered down, a few feet away from the ground, Kenji summersaulted over the edge of the saddle, creating an air cushion underneath his feet as he landed. He then threw up his arms in a bravado and wore a proud expression on his face, with his nose tip pointed to the sky and his eyes half open in a snooty manner.

"Have no fear! The airbenders are here!", the teenaged airbender yelled as the villagers cheered.

"Does he do that often?", Kazu mumbled to the others with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Unfortunately...Yes.", Ryoshi sighed .

/

Kazu, Kiara and Kenji were handing out the fresh supplies to the villagers while the remaining two airbenders unloaded the stock. Ryoshi was over in the corner, standing next to the village chief, out of earshot as the crowd converged around Taka, making the airbison a little disgruntled .

"So you're saying that the bandit attacks are getting more frequent?", Ryoshi asked, a little put off as he conversed with the village chief.

The chief was a big built man in his early sixties, with tanned brown skin and a protruding pot belly. He had a thick, white goatee and he wore a green kurta shirt paired with white pants along with green slippers. He also wore a dark green coat , one that symbolized his position as the village chief. It had been a custom uniform set up by King Wu under his new constitution over forty-nine years ago.

"Unfortunately...yes. We've been having this bandit problem for months now. And it's not only that. They've grown emboldened. At first they were only looting our supplies but now, almost every time they come, they send a group after my daughter,Ika. Most likely to hold her ransom to squeeze more out of us. They must be knowing that she, just like me, is a non-bender, making her an easy target. That's why I radioed in Master Temujin for help with this situation but each time he sends you kids here.", the chief sighed in this comment, Ryoshi felt slightly uneasy.

"Hey. I may be only twenty-one, but I'm an airbending master as well. I'm more than capable of handling a bunch of bandits, should it come to it.", Ryoshi replied, trying to stay civil.

"Yes. You may be capable ...but are your companions upto the task?",the chief interjected, nodding to the Kazu and the others, who were busy engrossed in handing out the supplies.

Ryoshi bit back a snort. If only the village chief knew that his 'companions' included the Avatar this time.

"I...guess only time will tell.", Ryoshi replied in a diplomatic manner.

 _/_

Kazu and Kiara were left to baby sit some of the children while Kenji and the other two airbenders were helping the adults to refill their homes with the fresh stock of supplies . Kazu sat near the fountain in the middle of the road junction, his elbows rested on his upper thigs as Kiara entertained the kids, keeping their attention locked onto a small display of the water works dance that she performed at her dance art school.

"Pretty!", one of the small children, a girl with ponytails , sighed as Kiara bent the water in a graceful form around the children in a ring formation.

"It's supposed to change into a rainbow color as the sunlight hits it...", Kiara muttered,a little put off as her water remained crystal blue .

"Don't worry. It only took ya seventeen years to get this good. I'm sure you can learn to do it in no time!", Kazu chimed in sarcastically from behind her. Instantly, Kiara flashed him a furious glare at which Kazu simply smirked at.

"It was beautiful! Do it again! Do it again!", the children chorused, waving their arms around. Kiara's face lit up in happiness at how much the children liked her water display.

"Thank you. ", Kiara replied with a smile and bent the water from the wooden barrel nearby, forming a thin watery belt that swiveled around them, engaging their attention again.

Just then, Kazu felt someone coming up behind him and turned around to find Ryoshi approaching them, a restless expression on his face. He had never told the airbender this, but his emotions were easily transparent on his face. If he been a police officer, he would've made a bad one.

"What the flameo happened to you? You went in all chirpy and calm and you come out looking like Taka when he has an itchy butt.", Kazu remarked, folding his arms across his chest.

"I just talked to the chief of the village. It doesn't matter if we give these people any supplies. The bandits will most likely just hit the place again and steal all the stuff. And I just learnt that they keep trying to kidnap the chief's daughter for ransom. ", Ryoshi replied, looking slightly downtrodden.

"The chief said it's like somehow our fault. That we're not doing enough.", he added.

"Oh yeah?", Kiara scoffed, stomping upto them from behind Kazu, leaving the children as their parents returned.

"We're the only ones who help these guys and that's what he thinks? I say we tell that hogmonkey exactly what we think of him.", Kiara spat, slamming her fist into her palm.

"What is it with you and hogmonkeys?", Kazu interjected, remembering that it was her first impression of him.

"Nothing. I just hate hogmonkeys. And I'm lookin at one right now.", she replied with a smirk at Kazu, which made his face turn red.

"oooh! Burrn!", Kenji cooed, airbending down towards them from a nearby rooftop.

"You stay outta this.", Kazu warned Kenji at which the airbender snickered.

"Okay. Arguing with each other isn't gonna do us much good.", Ryoshi interjected, putting himself in between the bickering teenagers.

"And aggressive actions won't 're not here to fight the village. We're here to help them.", he added to Kiara, who glared at him before stepping back, blowing at her bangs in her contempt.

"Hm...Maybe we could stay back a couple of hours. We send Lung and Tenhai back to the temple on Taka right now, acting as a decoy for the bandits in case they're watching us right now. We don't go yet. We just need them to _think_ that we're gone. Then, when they get here, we nab em!", Kenji replied with a thoughtful expression on his face.

The other three stood there, staring at him with blank expressions, blinking simultaneously.

"That's..actually a pretty good plan. Good work, Kenji. ", Ryoshi replied, a little amazed.

"Thanks.", the airbender replied with an exhausted expression. "All that thinking makes my head hurt.", he added, rubbing his head as if it was sore.

"And we'll keep the village chief's daughter with us as well, so that there's more of a chance for the bandits to come in, since they're after her too.", Ryoshi added as the others nodded.

/

"You guys sure about doing this? If you call for help, there's no way we can make it back here in time.", Tenahi replied as Lung airbent himself onto Taka's saddle, all packed.

"We'll be alright. Just make sure you guys get back here by tomorrow daybreak.", Ryoshi replied, nodding.

"Very well then. Good luck.", Tenahi replied as he airbent himself onto Taka's neck, grabbing the airbison's reins.

"It's just for a little while.", Ryoshi replied to his airbison as the the animal glanced at him reproachfully. He didn't like leaving his friend behind.

"Taka,Yip!Yip!", Tenahi remarked, whipping the reins as the village folk stood back. On command, the airbison flapped it's tail, sending dust up around it as it began floating upward.

"Let's hope our little sleepover is worth it.", Kiara remarked, walking up to Ryoshi with Kazu and Kenji following behind her.

* * *

A delivery truck, silvery white with the colorful logo of it's company painted on it's body, slowly wheeled forward , waiting in line as the vehicle waited to pass through the national border checkpoint of the United Republic and the United Earth Kingdom.

There were five checkports, all teeming with lines of honking vehicles as the border guards inspected each vehicle entering the country. The long lines of traffic waiting was not an unusual sight, but today, inspection had doubled . An international criminal had just escaped the high security Shai-Shein prison in the mountain ranges of Republic city and a thorough search was being conducted round the nation to make sure the convict didn't get abroad.

Slowly, the metal plated delivery truck wheeled forward and the guards moved in for inspection as the female driver lowered the glass window.

The guard(who looked to be in his early twenties) with the quirky looking pencilstache walked up, holding a clipboard with him. Him, along with his compatriots wore the greenish guard uniform with the peculiar looking pointy metal gloves and knee high black boots were paired with the uniform.

"Good afternoon ma'am. Where are you off to today?", the guard asked promptly.

"I got a delivery to make to Omashu.", the female driver replied with a raspy tone.

"I'm gonna need to see the papers ma'am.", the officer replied to which the female driver nodded.

"Here's the receipt.", she added, handing him a filed document that had been kept on the seat next to her.

As he took in the papers, the guard eyed the woman driver in front of him . She wore the sleeveless brown top and baggy pant uniform of her company, paired with a boat shaped black hat that she wore over her purple , bowl cut hair that fell just above her shoulder level. Her amber eyes pointed to fire nation ancestry but her slightly tanned skin looked of earth nation descent. Probably mixed race.

Turning his attention to the papers in his hand, he went over them and they seemed to be appropriate. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"By the way, you're pretty easy on the eyes.", the guard added with a small smile, which the woman returned with an emotionless stare.

"Uh...okay. Everything seems to be in order. We just need you to open up the back of the vehicle. It's standard procedure.", the guard replied hastily, feeling slightly embarrassed.

The woman gritted her teeth in anger. She had almost made it. The moment she opened the doors, they would realize what was going on.

"Sure.", She replied as calmly as she could and she opened up the door, walking out of the truck and towards the back.

She placed her hands on the door handle of the rear door and pursed her lips as the officers waited for her to open the door. Four of them. Four metal benders. She could take them.

Slowly, she pushed the door knob down and let the door creak open on it's own.

As the officers peered inside, they saw stacks of cargo boxes to be delivered to different retail outlets across the country and towards the left end of the delivery truck, a shocking sight met their eyes.

A balding man in his mid forties, bound and gagged up with his hands and legs tied up together. He was stripped of his clothing and he lay there in his white, greasy tanktop and striped boxers.

The sudden realization hit them like an elephant-rhino and the guards turned their gaze to the woman driver who had a smirk on her face. She was wearing a wig and had contact lenses on but there was no mistake.

"IT'S HER! WE HAVE CONTACT ! REQUIRE ASSISTANCE! I REPEAT! REQUIRE ASS-", one of the officers began yelping into his handheld radio but he didn't get to finish his sentence as Ta-lin struck them down with one swift air kick that shot out a strong air whip at them, catching them on their stomach, forcing them onto the ground in pain.

Two of the nearby guards rushed over, shooting out metal plates from their cuffs. Ta-lin turned their attention to them and she created an air funnel in her hands . With this funnel, she caught the metal plates in one end and shot it back out at the men through the other end, catching them head on. She then shot her palms out in front of her, sending a strong gust of wind at the men, sending them blowing off their feet, crashing into the wind shield of a car nearby.

As Ta-lin stood there, panting, she distinctly head the sound of police sirens heading in her direction and she cursed fluently as she sprinted back into the truck, wheeling it forward just as the gagged up man in the rear managed to crawl and fall of the officers hurried over, untying the man. Upon being released, the grey haired man shot up onto his feet, his hands grabbing onto his groin area with a petrified look on his face.

"That woman almost made me poo my pants!", he exclaimed in fright.

"Don't worry sir. You're alright. Um.. We'll see if we can get you man sized diapers.", the guard remarked with a disgusted expression as he helped the man up.

The police vehicle, at least five of them began to give chase as Ta-lin raced the truck at it's top speed, crashing slower cars in front of her out of the way. She glanced into her rear view mirror and grit her teeth as she caught sight of the five police vehicle giving chase .

Just then, she noticed a ten foot long pickup truck in front of her. Instead of crashing through the vehicle,she reached down and changed the gear, wheeling her truck to the right as she began to overtake the other truck. Just as she reach in front of it, she reached out of the vehicle window and thrust her palm forward, sending a particularly strong wind blast at the pickup truck, blowing it off it's wheels, sending it tumbling back through the road way as it skid along it's side, in the direction of the police cars that were giving chase.

Three of the police vehicle managed to wheel out from the path of harm but two of the cars weren't so lucky and the officers leapt out from their respective vehicles just as the pickup truck rolled right over them, exploding and going up in flames .

The remaining cars continued to give chase as Ta-lin curved her truck rightward, sending a passing by sato-mobile out of control as she rode onto the golden Bei bridge with it's thirty foot tall solid red colored metallic safety pillars and corner posts.

Ta-lin glared out her window and gritted her teeth as she noticed that she was still being tailed.

"Officer Lau requesting escorts! Put out an all points bulletin! Suspect is in a silver department store delivery truck, east bound. Breached the border. Took out two RCPD cars. This is a red note! I repeat, THIS IS A RED NOTE!", one of the officers, clearly panic stricken, yelled into the hand-held radio transmitter that was plugged into the compartment on his vehicle.

" _Zzat. Home base to dispatch. We have your location. Assistance three minutes. ",_ a stern female voice crackled out of the receiver.

Back in the delivery truck, Ta-lin was hunched over , with her back pressed firmly into the seat and her arms fully straightened out with her palms wrapped around the steering wheel. She glanced periodically at the rear-view mirror to spot the police giving chase . She found it hard to shake the officers off , especially with her being stuck with a stupid vehicle .

One of the cars finally caught up to her and began ramming it's side with hers, trying to bully her into stopping.

"HALT BEFORE THIS GETS ANY MORE UGLIER, TA-LIN!", one of the two officers in the vehicle yelled as he rolled down the door window and yanked his arm out, fist rolled and brandishing his metal cable gauntlet.

As an answer, Ta-lin glared at him as she heard the honking of a vehicle coming in from the opposite direction. Looking forward, she caught sight of a construction truck incoming and she slammed her heel into the break pad , screeching her truck to a halt . The officers, however, noticed the danger a little too late and before the driver could wheel the car out of the way, the police mobile rammed head on into the truck's front,and got pummeled over as the frantic truck driver screeched his ten foot tall vehicle to a halt.

Ta-lin then rapidly changed the gear and drove her vehicle forward a few decent meters on the exceptionally long bridge. But yet again, her path was thrawted.

Seven identical police mobiles came wheeling forward at the end of the bridge and screeched to a halt, forming a make shift wall of vehicles .

Cursing, Ta-lin tried to reverse and find another way through, only to find that her rear was also being blocked by the police cars that had been tailing her.

One of the officers from the front line of RCPD cars walked out of his car and forward, brandishing a grey audio phone that been to emit a high pitched screech as he switched it on. The lower officers followed suit and got out of their cars and performed a choreographed earthbending move, which resulted in them creating a ten foot tall wall of rock that shot out from the cement road behind them, making it impossible for Ta-lin to escape by running them over with her vehicle.

" _WE HAVE YOU CORNERED NOW! PLEASE EXIT THE VEHICLE AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD WHERE I CAN SEE THEM. YOU DO ANY AIRBENDING , YOU DIE. YOU TRY TO AIRBEND AT ME, YOU DIE. YOU TRY TO RUN OVER US WITH YOU VEHICLE, WE RAISE THE WALL BEHIND US... AND YOU DIE. ",_ the commanding officer remarked with his voice being amplified by the device in his hand that he held up to his mouth.

For over ten more seconds, Ta-lin barely moved, staring at the officers as if daring them to make a move.

" _OKAY. I'M GONNA COUNT TO FIVE AND IF YOU'RE NOT OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE, WALKING YOUR WAY OVER TO US, WE HAVE ORDERS TO KILL YOU ON SIGHT.",_ officer remarked and simultaneously, the metal bending officers standing in a line with him threw up their arms into an offensive metalbending pose, ready to attack in case she didn't comply.

" _ONE. "._ Nothing happened.

" _TWO."._ Nothing happened.

" _THREE."._ Nothing happened.

" _FOUR."._ Nothing happened.

Then, on the fifth count, Ta-lin appeared to have suddenly given up as she opened up her door and got out, walking began removing her disguise, pulling her wig off, and removing her contact lenses.

Now, the commanding officer remained silent and watched as one of his men rushed forward with a set of metal hand and ankle cuffs that would restrict the dangerous airbender's movements.

Then, when everything seemed to be going according to plan, it all went south.

As the young officer approached her with a nervous expression, she caught him by surprise, suddenly thrusting her right hand forward, palm open out, sending a sharp gust of strong wind at the officer that caught him unawares, knocking him off his feet and back a few paces.

"What the..", the commanding officer muttered, wondering what the convict planned to do .

As the men stood watching, Ta-lin simply cracked her neck with a smirk on her face as she removed her contact lenses and blonde wig.

"I've been wanting a good exercise after all those years being locked up in that filthy prison.", she murmured to herself.

"GET THAT CRAZY WOMAN!", the commanding officer yelled into his audio phone and simultaneously, all the officers ,at least fifteen of them began to charge forward at her, shooting out their metal cables with the razor sharp edge.

As the cables began nearing her , Ta-lin began to dance around the cables with relative ease dodging and ducking the edges with her airbending prowess .

After cartwheeling forwards, she grabbed a bunch of the cable and yanked hard, pulling some of the men off balance , sending them tumbling towards her , whereupon their faces met her heel.

Then, as she made the mistake of basking in her glory, four of the officers shot their metal cables at her, wrapping it around her two arms, trying to restrain her . For a few seconds, Ta-lin struggled and it appeared like the officers were finally being able to subdue her. Then, as the men watched, she formed a torrential wind spout that engulfed her from waist down. The strong winds began to levitate her off her feet, carried by her wind spout and she began to spin around with her hands out in front of her . Due to the strength of the winds she had conjured up, the men began to get dragged along with her spinning and a few of them were being spun around three-sixty-degrees like a windmill . Now almost ten feet above the ground, the men were being spun around like a rag doll as Ta-lin maintained the wind spout around her with her eyes shut closed in concentration.

The remaining men on the ground were also blasted off their feet before they could anchor themselves to the ground with their of them were all knocked out upon their heads being hit onto the metal railings of the bridge or on the ground.

With a majority of the men around her blown off or unconscious, Ta-lin slowly decreased the speed of her wind spout and descended back to the ground where she stood in a peculiar pose with both her hands out to the sides at shoulder level, palms facing outwards and her knees bent with her left leg in front of the right and toes pointing in opposite direction.

The remaining officers stood shocked at how powerful she seemed to be. Her airbending skill had been seriously understated in her arrest report.

Ta-lin began to advance on the remaining men, which included the middle aged commanding officer with the grey sideburns, when she heard the distinct sound of a Wang Industries RCPD helicopter approaching. It was a prototype and put the new conglomerate billion yuan business in competition with Varrick Industries and Future Industries, making it's owner, capitalist Bo Wang one of the wealthiest people in the world.

" _STAND DOWN. WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED. DO NOT MAKE A MOVE. I REPEAT,STAND DOWN!",_ a male officer aboard the police helicopter remarked through their audio phone.

Ta-lin didn't budge, glaring up at the copter until she flipped horizontally, shooting out a sharp wind whip at the copter from her heel, forcing the copter to wheel sideways to avoid it . Ta-lin could manage to take on a copter but what followed it was too big and unmanagable, a giant RCPD airship. There would be a whole battalion of officers converging on her at any moment now and to try and stay and fight would be fruitless and even Ta-lin acknowledged it.

As the officers on the ground and in the air stood watching, all of a sudden, the female airbender made a dash sideways, bolting towards the edge of the bridge with her black tresses billowing behind her.

"Is she gonna...?", the commanding officer on site mumbled in disbelief. That bridge was notorious in the earth province for most suicide attempts. The rapid water below were deadly and could bash your head in if you were crazy enough to jump into it.

As they watched, Ta-lin was almost at the edge now, only about ten feet away.

"SOMEBODY STOP HER!", the officer yelled into his audio phone but it was too late. As they rushed to try and grab at her, Ta-lin created an air cushion beneath her feet and leapt, sending herself plummeting into the rapid waters, almost teen feet below the bridge level.

As the men reached the edge of the bridge, Ta-lin was already gone, disappearing into the depths of the raging waters.

"Is she...dead?", one of the junior officers mumbled,a little unsurely to his partner, as they and the others looked on , scanning the waters for any sign of her. She was nowhere to be seen.

"That was one crazy terrorist.", the commanding officer whispered as he and the others looked around the raging waters with no sign of the airbending convict. She was most likely dead.

* * *

"For the record, I thought this mission would be a bust from the beginning.", Kiara chided as she,Kazu, Ryoshi and Kenji walked around the large tiled hall that was the village's main cargo warehouse. Ryoshi had picked this building to camp in since it was loaded with storage supplies.

The village chief's daughter, a twenty two year old girl named Ika, was also there with the group as they given their word to keep her safe for the night while the village chief was out of town, at a provincial meeting in a neighbouring village. Ika had bright blue eyes and tanned skin with jet black hair that cut off above her shoulder level.

"Thanks for the positive attitude.", Kazu huffed at her as he peered out form the lone window in the room with Ryoshi. Kiara stuck her tongue out at him when he wasn't looking, making Kenji snicker.

"A bunch of psycho bandits are after me and all that father could give me as protection were you people.", Ika cursed. It was apparent that she was a slightly spoiled girl , for she had a slightly rude air around her.

"Alright. Would you two just give it a rest already?", Ryoshi scoffed at the avatar and the waterbender, irritated at their bickering. He felt like a babysitter , to say the least.

"She started it!", Kazu immediately replied as Kiara simultaneously said, "He started it!", almost at the same time that he did, sounding like little children caught arguing.

"Can it, people! Or both of you lose your toilet previllages !", Ryoshi hissed as he turned to look back out the window. Kazu put on a sulking face and proceeded to move over and slouch against the wall.

All the while, Kenji had been silently watching and snickering.

"Man! And I thought I was irritating. ", he said out loud, causing both the avatar and the waterbender to shoot death glares at him that made him cover.

"Uhm...", Kenji mumbled, tugging at his color nervously as he cowered under Kiara's fierce glare.

"Anyone interested in playing a game of thumb wrestling?", the teenaged airbender muttered, trying to divert the conversation.

Ika shook her head at the people supposed to protect her and the village acting like walked over to Ryoshi, the only person among them who seemed mature enough to understand the gravity of the situation the village was facing.

"Do you really think this is going to work?", she inquired softly as she stood next to him as he glanced out the window.

"It can't hurt our chances to try.", Ryoshi replied, a little optimistic.

He the glanced back out the window with his binoculars.

"Kiara Kenji. Why don't you both go out and patrol the area. Make sure that you stay on guard. ", Ryoshi remarked.

"Kazu, stay here and help me protect Ika if they bandits come.", Ryoshi added .

"You're just doing it so that Kazu and Kiara stop bickering. Amirite or amirite?", Kenji mumbled to him with a smirk.

"Just do it.", Ryoshi hissed, evidently annoyed with everyone's childish behavior .

/

"I'm getting hungry!", Kenji groaned as his stomach rumbled.

He and Kiara stood outside the storage warehouse, patrolling the area under the moonlight as Ryoshi and Kazu kept watch over the food supplies and the village Chief's daughter.

"It's your fault. You should've eaten before we came can it and stay silent or else I will water smack in the face!", Kiara hissed as the two of them walked around the compound.

"Jeez. Why is this world so mean? Can't a simple airbender whine about his problems in peace?", Ryoshi retorted.

"Will you just shut up!? We're supposed to be silent right now. So get a grip on yourself. ", Kiara kissed, forcing her companion to step back , cowering.

"Okay, ma'am. ", Kenji remarked in fear.

Unbeknownst to the teenagers, they were silently being watched by four masked bandits in black , crouching in the shadows, among the bushes of the forestry nearby.

Once the twosome had turned their backs in their direction, the bandits sprinted forward and silently shot the slab underneath their feet up, sending them summersaulting over the fence and into the compound, where they sprinted to cover with their back bent low. By the time Kiara and Kenji had turned back around, the two bandits had all but disappeared from view.

/

Kazu stood in the hallway,outside the main storage room where Ryoshi and the village chief's daughter were holed up in. He had his back leaned up against the wall behind him and a docile flame was lit up in his palm, dancing on his fingers, it's light reflected in his amber eyes. He loved the flame. It made him feel calm, even though fire was supposed to be destructive and violent. Everytime he lit up a flame, it felt like a tiny heartbeat in his darkness of the area around him accentuated the effect of the light in his hands, making it seem brighter and more warmer to him in the draught night.

Just then, Kazu caught sight of a shadow moving around the flooring, the bright moonlight cascading around it.

"Hey!", Kazu remarked as his eyes caught sight of it. As soon as he took notice of it, the shadow simply drew back, vanishing from view around the corner. Without thinking it through, the sixteen year old sprinted in the direction, giving chase to the illusive shadow as it rounded corner and dipped out of view.

Then, as Kazu bolted round a corner, something icy cold and hard swung at his face from the corner and before he could react, the block of ice had struck his face, knocking him out instantly.

As he lay there, knocked out cold, the four masked bandits stood over him, holding a rope in their hands, ready to tie him up .

/

"Do you really think the bandits will come? I mean... they did just loot the village only a day ago.", Ika remarked as she sat on a wooden cargo box in the storage room.

"I do not know for certain. But your father has told me that they have made numerous attempts to hold you captive for ransom from your father. On the off-chance they were to make an attempt today, we'll be ready.", Ryoshi replied as he walked around her in circle, twirling his metallic gliderstaff on his fingers.

"You know, my father may not admit it, but we really are very thankful for all the help the air nation has provided for us. If we were to depend on the corrupt ministry officers of this province, we would've been in a much worse situation than we are in now.", Ika remarked with a smile at Ryoshi , which he returned.

Just then, a razor edged metal plate shot out of the darkness from the corridor outside , aimed at Ika, who had her back turned to it. But Ryoshi's eyes caught sight of the glint of silver and he immediately shoved Ika out of the way , just in time to divert the plate's path off course.

"Finally. I had just begun to grow tired of chasing after the chief's daughter. A duel with an airbending master. This , I will relish.", the leader of the masked bandits proclaimed in a raspy, coarse voice as the four men stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the lit torches in the room.

Upon closer inspection, Ryoshi noticed that the leader of the masked bandit group had his arms encased within ice gauntlets.

A waterbender bandit? That was unusual. Most of the bandits, if not all, were metalbenders and this had to be the first waterbending bandit Ryoshi had come across.

"There is no need to fight. We can all put this behind us if you would just stop and give yourselves in.", Ryoshi replied as he assumed an airbending pose, with Ika cowering behind him.

"Yeah. Not what I had in mind, Kid.", one of the men chortled before he lurched forward, engaging Ryoshi in a battle of earth and air blasts.

/

Back outside, Kenji and Kiara were walking around the area, with the moonlight over them when they heard the faint sounds of an elemental battle going on from within the storage compound.

"How in La's name did they get in!?", Kiara yelped as the two of them bolted back into the compound, sprinting through the dark corridors. Kiara ran on ahead as Kenji dug his heels into the floor, his keen nostrils picking up the scent of the half-eaten lentil sandwich that he had given Kazuhiko before.

"Kazu! Ryo's in trouble!", Kenji called out and when no response came, the airbender realized that something was wrong and he immediately bolted in the direction, following the scent of his sandwich with his flared nostrils leading him on like a polarbear dog.

/

Ryoshi was being pressed back by a three on one barrage. The three earthbenders were pelting stones and slabs of concrete at him as he stood his ground, blasting them to crumbs with powerful wind shots. Ika stood behind him as the two of them were being cornered back into the wall .

"You don't matter in this little hustle,airbender. It's just the chief and his daughter that we got business with. Get out of the way.", the leader of the bandit group hissed out as his men attacked vigorously. However, the leader was not attacking yet, simply standing behind his men with his arms encased in ice gauntlets.

"You guys messed with an area under the protection of the air nation. So I do matter in this little hustle.", Ryoshi retorted before one of the slabs managed to break through his wind defenses and hit him in the abdomen, forcing him to double over onto the ground in pain.

"So much for your protection, kid.", one of the earthbending bandits scoffed as he walked forward, intending to step over Ryoshi and take Ika. But as the man stood over Ryoshi,the airbender caught a hold of the man's ankle and yanked him backwards before shooting a wind blast at the man's chest, forcing him to groan in pain as he lay on the ground.

"And so much for you guys putting up a fight.", Ryoshi remarked as he clashed with the men again. This time, the three bandits converged on him at once, overwhelming him and managed to strike him on the shoulder with a slab of concrete.

As the men advanced on Ika again, a blast of water came shooting in from somewhere and struck one of them in the face, forcing him off his feet as he tumbled backwards. As the other men looked around for the source, Kiara smirked up at them, a ball of water swirling in between her palms as she stood in a waterbending pose with her hands close to her water skin on her hips.

"Don't...move..", Kiara hissed as the bandits exchanged blank glances with each other.

/

Back in the corridors, Kenji had now located an unconscious Kazu and had just yanked the rope off his hands and grabbed the avatar by his shoulders and began shaking him violently to wake him up, to no avail. Then, in a moment of desperation, Kenji slapped Kazu hard across the face, shocking him awake as the Avatar gasped for air.

"WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?", Kazu yelped in pain as Kenji shurgged with an awkward chuckle.

/

Kiara took two steps forward, the orb of water revolving in between her palms as Ryoshi got to his feet ,brandishing his gliderstaff,with the group of four masked men in the middle , between them.

"This keeps getting interesting.", the leader remarked, eyeing the two of them . He and his men were also standing in a bending pose.

"Come on, little girl. Show me what ya got.", the waterbending bandit taunted Kiara and it was enough to push the easily impulsive girl into firing ice bullets at the man from her orb of water.

Two of the metal benders engaged Ryoshi while the other two bandits, including the waterbender, engaged Kiara. The waterbender was easily dodging Kiara's attack. flipping around.

"You're not all that good , are you, kid?", the men taunted her and in her moment of frustration, one of them shot a razor edged metal blade that whizzed towards her.

Just then, a burst of flames shot into the room and parried the blade away from Kiara.

With shocked looks on their faces, the men whipped around to see Kazuhiko and Kenji enter the room, both of them in their bending postures.

"Were you two asleep or something?!", Kiara scoffed.

"Haven't seen a firebender round these parts for a while. This should be interesting.", the leader of the group remarked and split from the others, bolting towards Kazu with his hands out to his sides, letting them dangle past his hips as he ran, back bent.

"And you're gonna be sorry you met one today, bub.", Kazu retorted as he shot out a burst of flames at the man, forcing him to dodge around it as Kenji ran forward to help Ryoshi, who was battling two metalbenders at once.

Soon, the entire room was witness to a quick moving elemental battle with each of the bandits battling Ryoshi and the others.

Kazu sprinted forward, shooting volatile fire blasts out of his fists, roaring as the bandit leader lurched sideways, out of the way before he leapt up, shooting out metal plates that wrapped around Kazu's ankles, yanking him off his feet, upside down. Then, wasting no time, the man leapt up and attempted to land a solid kick on Kazu's face, only to get blasted sideways by a last minute rescue by Ryoshi before he turned back to his enemy.

"Looks like you need your meddling boyfriend to get you out of tight spots, kid.", the man chided as he got flipped himself back off the ground and onto his feet, where he began to prance around, lightly bobbing on the balls of his feet with his fists up and elbows locked to his sides.

"Enough talk!", Kazu roared and punched out in front of him, shooting fire blasts at the bandit . Kazu shot out fire punches three times but each time the masked bandit ducked out under it. Kazu then lurched forward, spinning on his right heel as he shot out an angry fire whip from his left heel and the bandit rolled forwards, ducking under the attack.

Kazu then managed to shoot out two more fire blasts from his knuckles before the earthbending bandit stomped at the floor, shooting out a rock stalagmite that forced Kazu off his feet. He then ripped out a medium sized boulder from the ground and shot it at Kazu, hitting him on the abdomen area.

"Ahhhh!Ngh..", Kazu grunted in pain.

As Kazu lay on the floor, the metalbending bandit bounded forward, brandishing a razor edged silver blade that protruded out of the top of his wrist. Kazu immediately swerved his legs out in a fan-like motion, erupting a swirl of flames that engulfed around the bandit, forcing him to loose his concentration on Kazu .

Seizing the opportunity, Kazu flipped back onto his feet and began raining down fiery punches at the bandit leader, catching him on the chest and on the shoulder, forcing him to tumbled back as smoke drifted off his body.

"You'll pay for that, you little runt!", the man grunted through gritted teeth as he clutched his rib area.

/

Kiara was firing ice bullets rapidly at her waterbending opponent and he was simply laughing at her, not even attacking as he drew up a wall of ice around him, preventing him from getting hit.

"What the hell is your problem, dude!? Fight back!", Kiara spat out as frustration was written all over her face. All the others were managing to land blows on their opponents,while her man was making her prance around like a goat-horse, unable to land a single blow.

"Come on little girl. Is that all ya got?", the masked bandit taunted her with a raspy voice and this pushed her anger to boiling point.

"SHUT YOUR YAMMERING!", Kiara roared as she continued her fruitless assault on the waterbender.

As all the bandits were engaged, Ryoshi turned to Ika.

"Get out of here! Go get your father. We can hold these guys !", Ryoshi yelled as she wind blasted his bandit.

Nodding, Ika sprinted out of the area with a slightly frightened look, leaving herself defenseless and the waterbending bandit that was fighting Kiara took notice.

"All right . Play time's over.", he hissed and before Kiara knew what was happening , he shot a water jet at Kiara that she narrowly managed to evade , ducking out under it as it grazed at a hair on her head and by the time she looked up, she saw that her man was bolting away out of the storage warehouse, ice gauntlets brandished.

"Hey! Get back here! We're not finished!.", Kiara hissed and got up, chasing after him.

Kazu had noticed the waterbending bandit escaping the scene and a second later, he saw Kiara chasing after him.

"What on earth are you doing!?", he yelled out incredulously at her.

"I'm pursuing my guy. He's going after the chief's daughter. Keep the others busy!", Kiara yelled back.

"YOU ARE SOOOO NOT THE BOSS OF ME!", Kazu yelled back with an offended expression.

"Just shut up and do it!", Kiara hissed back in annoyance as she turned the corner, vanishing from view. As Kazu opened up his mouth to retort back, he sensed a metal plate whizzing in his direction and he ducked out just in time as the razor edged plate zoomed over his head.

"Watch it, man! You could kill someone with that thing!", Kazu yelped as he shot a fire stream at his opponent, who was back onto his feet.

/

The masked waterbending bandit rounded the corner and screeched to a halt, his arms covered in ice gauntlets as his keen amber eyes picked out the figure of Ika ,over a few dozen feet away, running as fast as she could to escape being caught.

"You can run, princess. But you can't hide..", the waterbender remarked in a slurred whisper as he morphed the ice gauntlet on his right hand into an ice spear, aimed at the silhouette of Ika in the distance as she bolted toward the forestry.

But just before the bandit could shoot his ice spear, a water whip twirled around his feet from behind and knocked him off his feet. Spinning around, he caught sight of Kiara standing a few feet away with an ice dagger held in both her hands, ready to strike.

"Stand down.", Kiara hissed.

"I was hoping it'd be you who would come after me.", the bandit remarked.

"Make my day, pipsqueak.", Kiara whispered through gritted teeth.

"Fine. You wanna fight? Let's see what you got.", he remarked as he shot out water pellets at her.

/

Back in the main warehouse, Ryoshi was flipping around back and forth, skillfully evading the slabs of earth and metal that were being pelted at him. He shot air whips at his opponent and he ran across the walls using an airbending move .Simultaneously, Kenji bounded forward and began blasting air bombs at the bandits. He then roared in an exhilarated manner and pounded his chest like an angry gorilla-rhino, with a wild expression on his face as he continued his assault.

Kazu was shooting out fire lashes and fire streams, putting his metalbending opponent on the backfoot, reduced to simply defending himself as Kazu continued his fiery assault.

Ryoshi swung his gliderstaff around, creating a wind funnel that he aimed at his opponent, throwing him off balance as he got caught in the wind currents . He then flipped backwards as a slab of concrete whizzed past his ear. Summersaulting backwards three times, he came to a halt, ending up standing back-to-back with Kazu, both of them panting.

"This is taking a lot longer than I thought.", Ryoshi muttered as he mapped out the area with his keen eyes, his hands gripped onto his gliderstaff.

"Why don't we switch opponents?", Kazu suggested and Ryoshi nodded immediately, agreeing.

"Agreed.", Ryoshi stated .

Then , both of them leapt in the opposite direction, changing opponents as they continued their attack. And this strategy seemed to work as the bandits stopped mid way, confused as to what was happening.

In the confusion, Kazu leapt up, kicking out two fire balls from his heels before he caught the bandit with a strong fire stream that left the man crumpled on the ground, smoke trailing off. Ryoshi evaded two of his opponent's metal plates before he created an air cushion under his feet, sending him shooting towards the wall on his left, where he gained an enough height advantage to shoot out a sharp wind blast aimed at the bandit's head and upon impact, the force of the wind knocked out the masked bandit.

Kazu and Ryoshi looked at each other, panting with a smile on their face as their opponents collapsed on the floor.

"Took you amateurs long enough.", Kenji scoffed and the two of them turned to see him sitting on top of the unmoving body of his unconscious opponent, picking his nose with a bored expression on his face.

/

Back outside,Kiara and the waterbending bandit were locked in an elemental combat, with Kiara hurling ice daggers at her opponent while he was shooting ice bullets and ice spears at her. He clearly was the more skillful waterbender of the two of them.

Kiara rolled over sideways on her knees as the waterbending bandit rained down ice spears at her. Once she found her footing, she shot her orb of water at him with all her might, and she managed to catch him off guard with a jet stream onto his face. Upon impact, the masked bandit seemed to have been knocked unconscious as he lay there, unmoving.

"Who's laughing now?", she hissed.

Panting, Kiara walked up to him as he lay there, eyes shut. Then, all of a sudden, the man's amber eyes shot wide open and he swerved his legs around in a fan-like motion , taking Kiara out from under her feet with his martial arts move. The man had simply been acting unconscious to catch her off guard. And it worked.

Now he stood, with one arm wrapped around her neck from behind while his other held hand her wrists together behind her, restraining her.

"Aaah! Ngh!", Kiara yelped, struggling, as his grip on her tightened.

"You're not as good as you thought you were, little girl.", the man hissed.

As Kiara struggled, a thought came to her in her moment of desperation. Stretching her neck downwards, she dug her teeth into the arm of the bandit and he roared out in pain. Seizing the opportunity, Kiara freed herself from his grasp . She bounded forwards and swept her arms up and punched out forward, shooting a water jet at him, striking him in the face.

This time, the force of her water blast had torn his mask off his face and he stood there, clutching his rib area, his face turned away from her.

"Give up!", Kiara demanded, wielding ice daggers in her hand.

Slowly, her bandit turned around and the light of the torches in the corridor lit up his face .

Kiara's eyes shot wide open as she recognized him. His chocolate brown long hair that fell to his shoulders. The black prominent black eyeliner that outlined his amber eyes .His dark, angular eyebrows. His strong jawline. He smirked at Kiara as she wore a stunned look on her face. She hadn't seen him for over eleven years. But she could easily recognize the way he looked at her.

"You?...", Kiara simply mumbled, dumbstruck .

"Wow. I am completely at your mercy.", the waterbender remarked.

"You definitely have learnt a thing or two about waterbending since we last met. But I can tell that you are still an amateur. Self-taught like all the city rats of Beltunsh, I suppose?", the waterbender taunted her as she stood frozen, staring at his familiar features.

"I suppose you're going to bring me in and hand me over to those airbenders that you live with now.I wonder if their trust in you is strong enough for them to not doubt you once they find out about who you really are.", the waterbender remarked coolly, eyeing her with his amber eyes that looked so much like Kiara's own.

Kiara continued to stare at the young man in front of her for a few strained seconds before she dropped her stance, withdrawing her water back into her water skin that rested on her hip.

"Didn't think so. See you around.", the waterbender remarked with a raspy tone before he turned the water into thick,opaque vapor around him, clouding him from view and when the fog cleared, he was nowhere to be seen.

Kiara stood there silently, her eyes fixed on the spot where she last saw him. A shocked look on her face. After all these years.

Just then, the sound of hurrying footsteps echoed through the corridor and a few seconds later, Kazu and Ryoshi came running into the scene with Ika. Kenji brought the rear, using an airbending move to push the unconscious bodies of the bandits that had been tied up together into a single bunch.

Looking around, Ryoshi turned to a sullen faced Kiara.

"Where's the waterbender? Did you get him?", the airbender inquired, panting.

"No...He..got away.", Kiara mumbled, not meeting their eyes.

"Oh from you!? Biigg surprise! You see us? We _caught_ our guy.", Kazu piped up,boasting about his achievements to Kiara but the waterbender stayed silent.

"It's alright. We managed to catch three out of four bandits, thanks in no small part to you, Kiara.", Ryoshi replied with a consoling smile as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Kiara managed to look up at him with a smile.

"You did good.", Ryoshi remarked with a kind smile as Kazu rolled his eyes behind him.

Seeing Kazu's childish reaction, Ryoshi elbowed him in the gut and as the avatar's reproachful gaze met his own,the twenty-one year old nodded at Kiara .

"Fine..You did alright...I suppose..", Kazu relented, sighing .

* * *

The sun cast it's warmth over the village as a small crowd was gathered around the council fort. Many of them were murmuring among themselves as they eyed the restrained bandits who threw them filthy glares , their mouths taped shut and their limbs tied up in rope.

Ryoshi was chatting with the village chief with serious looks on their faces. Kazu sat on an upturned wooden cargo box, eating his breakfast hungrily. Kenji was trying to stop Taka from giving him a saliva bath. Lung and Tenhai had returned from the air temple as was planned and were helping load the saddles of the two airbison that had come along with Taka.

"So...these are the men that have been pillaging the village?", the chief asked as Ryoshi and the others presented the gagged bandits in the morning.

"Not exactly. No. We believe that there are more out there, but they tend to send groups to do their work. And I am sorry to tell you that one of them managed to get away. A waterbender. ", Ryoshi replied to the chief as Ika stood behind her father, watching Kazu stuffing his face with a piece of pork-quail sandwich.

"A waterbender?", the chief repeated with a confused look on his chubby face, his beefy mustache quivering.

"Yes. And he was a very good one too. We are not certain if the bandits are adding benders of other elements to their ranks or if this one was just a special case. But we'll look into it. Our next visit should be in four days time.", Ryoshi remarked, giving the chief an assuring smile.

"Convey our regards to Master Temujin and thank you for keeping my daughter safe.", the chief replied as Ryoshi nodded with a smile.

Just before Ryoshi was about to turn to leave,Ika stepped toward him and before Ryoshi knew what was happening, the girl leaned up onto her toes and planted a kiss on his cheek. Ryoshi stared at her with a blank expression, his eyes wide open, his hand on his cheek where she had kissed him.

"Thank you for helping us.", she stated as her father eyed Ika and Ryoshi with a skeptical expression, twirling his mustache.

"No need to thank us. The air nation is here to help in whatever way we can. ", Ryoshi remarked with a smile( thought it was evident the airbender was blushing, for his cheeks had turned pink ) as he turned and airbend himself onto Taka's saddle.

"We'll be back soon.", he added with a smile, gripping onto the airbison's reins as Kazu , Kenji and Kiara clambered onto the bison's saddle, sitting behind Ryoshi.

"Taka, Yip! Yip!", Ryoshi remarked, whipping the bison's reins and on command, Taka and the other two airbison cooed, gently drifting skywards as their tail flapped behind them, with the crowd of villagers cheering as the air benders grew smaller and smaller until their vanished behind the thickets of the white clouds in the sky.

Once they were clear of the village, Kazu and Kenji sat near the back of the saddle and got themselves engrossed in a game of Yu-Dao. *****

Kiara, however, sat silently near the front of the saddle, just behind Ryoshi, her back facing away from the other two sitting behind her. She had her knees bent up, hugged close to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. Her mouth was pressed against her leg as she stared at the bag that contained hay for Taka. Ryoshi had noticed her slightly lost demeanor ever since last night but he had waited until now to talk to her.

"Are you..okay? You wanna talk to me about something?", Ryoshi inquired, a little curiously.

"No...It's nothing.", Kiara responded wearily, not even sparing the airbender a glance as she continued to sit in silence, her brows furrowed in thought, her mind fixed on the waterbender from the previous night.

* * *

Ta-lin stood in front of the river,at the river bank as the waters that were once the rapids slowly flowed, ebbing away harmoniously. Her reflection in the waters stared back at her . Her hair was mostly dry now but it was still slightly moist from being tossed around in the river rapids. The authorities were most likely convinced that she was now dead and she would have been , if it weren't for her airbending prowess. She had survived the river rapids by creating an air sphere around her as she was tossed around in the waters.

She stood in different clothing, red robes .She was wearing a sleeveless red top that cut just slightly above her waist and she paired it with maroon baggy pants that allowed her free didn't want to make it too easy for anyone to recognize her .

Next to her, on her right side was a wooden wicker basket that was waist high from the ground level. And on top of it lay a blunt, silvery dagger that she had procured from the Quan-Lao village nearby. She was close. There was talk in the village about the airbenders who had just left the area and that there was a firebender with them, from what she had heard. The Avatar was with them.

Her jet black hair fell to her hips around her back and sides. Taking a deep breath, she reached her arms up and pulled back at her hair, holding them together in a clump ontop of her head. She reached down with her free hand and picked up the dagger in her palm, bringing it close to her hair. Then, with one swift movement, she moved the blade and sliced her hair through, cutting it evidently short as she let the rest of her hair fall to the floor.

Standing there, she stared at her reflection with a determined expression on her face, her short hair barely covering her ears.

* * *

 **That's all for this chapter drop a review , it helps me correct my mistakes. And I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
**

 **Also, what do you think? Should I let Kazu connect with all his past lives?**

 **Until next time, Avatar Yip,Yip!**

 ***** Yu-Dao is a hand game that I created for my story in the Avatar world. It's played mostly like rock,paper,scissors, except that the different hand gestures symbolize different elements. Water beats fire, Fire beats rock, Air beats fire, like that.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Legend Of The Nuwa

**REPLY TO COMMENTS:  
**

 **Vergil Leonidas** : Thanks! I appreciate it! And yes, Korra will be appearing to Kazu in this book. And I don't know about what to name the new 'Team Avatar'. My sister suggested the name "  Komrades". What do you think?

 **Curiousmaq :** Thanks!

 **Korrasami4life :** Thank you!

 **Avatarangkorra :** Cool Idea. And Thanks!

 **Legend Of Korra and all other 'Avatar'** **related Material are owned by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko**

 **BOOK ONE : ACCEPTANCE**

Chapter Five - The legend of the Nuwa

* * *

 _Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring peace and balance to the world._

* * *

A single fishing boat rocked around in the rough waters of Kow-loon bay , a few dozen feet the fishing village of Pinyin of the western earth kingdom.

Pinyin was a quiet little village who's main source of income was the trade of fishes and sea related products that they could gather from the ocean depths. The village had most of it's houses made of wood and earth, done by the local earthbenders. Parts of the little village were built over the salty ocean waters, with stone and earth ridges built up on rock pillars that rose up out of the shallow water . The huts were connected by amateurly made stone bridges that lacked any real safety railing of any sorts. The bridge was merely inches above the water level and there was nothing that could stop the water from flowing over the bridge in case of a high tide situation.

The single metallic fishing boat was stacked with heaps of fish for the day and the two men on board, a grey haired and bearded captain and his son, were going to take the fish and the coral gathered from the reef bed to Beltunsh to sell it in the marine market there.

The two men struggled to maintain poise on the vessel as they tried to maneuver it through the rocking waves that smacked against the boat rim. They could see their quiet village in the distance on the shoreline, with everybody still asleep. There were a few other boats out as well but they were still further off, not done with the gathering yet.

The father, a stout looking broad shouldered man with a scruffy grey goatee, noticed that his teenaged son, had his eyes peeled wide open as he looked around the waters nervously.

"Keep yer eyes peeled,son. Haven't ye heard of the Nuwa? Don't want it comin up and gobbling us up now, do you?", the man cackled with an amused glint in his eyes as his son's face dropped into a petrified expression.

"No sir!", he yelped as he turned back to the waters, his eyes fixed to the moving tides.

"Eh-Heh-Heh-Heh.", the man chuckled to himself as he turned and walked back, leaving his son in his frightened state of mind.

Just then, the son, who was nineteen years of age, caught sight of something pale white and glowing ominously moving underneath their ship, in the watery depths below them. It was massive looking. He had no idea what it was and the moment he took notice of it, it disappeared from view.

"DAD! T-THERE'S SOMETHING MOVING BELOW US! ", the son yelped in a frightened state of mind, his hands frozen to the cold metal safety railings of the boat in fear.

"What are ye yammering about , son?", the middle aged man cribbed as he hobbled along towards his son. Once the man reached the edge, he looked out in the direction his son was staring, petrified. But there was nothing but dark, rough salty waters moving up and down.

"You've gotta lay off the cactus juice ,son. It's messin with yer mind. There's nothin down there.", the man remarked in a scolding voice.

Just then, the silence of the night was broken by an eerie screech that echoed through the night, forcing the father and son to slam their palms onto their ears to try and block out the noise. A mere second later, a massive white reptilian appendage with green spinal horns shot out of the water . The man and his son whipped around to find a snake-like tail wrapping around the entire ship in coils. The father and son stood frozen in shock and fear as the white snake-like tail began to crush and dent the body of the fishing boat.

Then, as they stood with their backs turned to the hull, something massive and pale emerged out of the water,glowing slightly, near the front of the boat where the two of them stood . It's restless breathing was what alerted the father and son to the fact that there was something behind them, watching them.

As the two of the slowly turned around, they came face to face with the pale white snake head, with it's eight foot long fangs bared and clouds of air puffing out of it's flared nostrils. It had two long , emerald green strands of scaly appendages that hung down from it's face, just below it's nostrils but just above it's mouth. It looked like a dragon, if one could compare them, but it was common knowledge that the dragons only lived in the fire nation. The sea serpent's yellow eyes stared down at the two cowering humans who stood there, hugging each other in fright.

"I'm too young to die!", the son yelped.

"I'm not. But I still don't wanna!", the father followed up, both of them shivering in their boots.

The giant sea serpent now had the boat wrapped in it's tightening coils and it's head stood out of the water, almost fifteen feet above the water level.

Then, in a sudden spur motion, it dipped it's head, screeching, and shot towards the front of the boat, towards the two screaming humans, it's mouth wide open as it prepared to blast them with it's spirit energy.

* * *

The freezing cold breeze sent a shiver down Kazuhiko's spine as he and Ryoshi were out in the open training grounds in the early hours of the morning, with Ryoshi helping the young Avatar practice and improve his airbending skill.

The temple was empty, with everyone deep in their slumbers. The light of dawn hadn't cracked through the sky yet and most of the temple was still dimly lit, with just the main training ground lit up with four torches that were placed in their respective brackets along the stone walls.

"What's the big idea making me train _this_ early in the morning? Doncha know the morning is _Evil..._?", the sixteen year old yawned as he moved around in circles,facing Ryoshi, skimming his feet lightly across the floor, his hands out in front of him, moving around in calm motions as he manipulated the wind currents around them in a ring formation so that it passively encircled around the two of them in a wave like motion, with Ryoshi helping him out.

The two of them were the only ones awake, for master Temujin was yet to stroll around, waking everyone up for dawn patrol . Ryoshi deduced that Kazu could concentrate much better on improving his bending if there weren't many people ogling him all the had noticed that Kazu would sometimes grow conscious of himself when people were watching and he would lose focus.

"Morning is the best time to practice your bending. Your body's fresh and energized and your mind can concentrate better than during the day. I've always found it much easier to practice in the morning. ", Ryoshi replied as he waved his arms along in a fluid motion, maintaining the air current ring the two of them were manipulating around themselves.

"You're starting to sound like Temujin.", Kazu snickered . Just then, a thought that had been bugging Kazu for a few days came to the forefront of his head .

"Speaking of Temujin... how have classes with him being going ?", Ryoshi asked curiously. He hadn't seen the air master and the avatar in one on one training sessions for a few days now. Most of the time, he'd seen Kazu practicing alone or with Kenji.

"It's going... I guess. I haven't really had actual classes with Temujin for the past few days. He wants me to perfect the basics before we move on.", Kazu groaned before a thought hit him.

"Hey. How long d'you think I can start learning the 'real' air bending stuff? Ya know, like the wind spouts and air cycles, gliding and all that crazy stuff.", Kazu asked nonchalantly.

Since he had unlocked his airbending, that was what he looked forward to the most. Using high-level air bending techniques to look awesome. He would love to see the expression on the faces of some of his childhood bullies in the streets of capital city if he were to hit them with his awesome airbending skills. He didn't admit it, but he did think most of the things he had seen Temujin and the other tattoo heads do was pretty cool.

"Um... I think before you can talk to Temujin about all that, you're gonna have to perfect what you can do so far. That's what he wants, right? I mean, you can airbend, but you're not a master yet. There's a huge difference.", Ryoshi remarked, with a skeptical look on his face as he passed the air currents along.

"Ha! I _have_ mastered the basics! Check this out!", Kazu exclaimed incredulously as he broke off from the practice, leaving Ryoshi to control the wind ring on his own.

"Punch! Punch! Punch! ", Kazu remarked loudly as he moved around, punching out aggressive air blasts in front of him. The air blasts weren't very precise or technical, they were just powerful gusts of wind. He then turned back to his friend with a victorious smirk on his face, his arms crossed across his chest.

"See? Mastered!", Kazu remarked proudly.

"Yeah...I don't think you'll convince Temujin of your 'mastery' with that show. ", Ryoshi chuckled .

Just then, a familiar voice echoed out through the grounds.

"Convince me of what, exactly?", Temujin remarked loudly , his voice coming from some unseen place. Kazu yelped in shock and jumped off his feet in fright in a comical fashion .

As the two of them looked around, their eyes picked up the sight of master Temujin walking out from the darkness of a nearby corridor, stroking his pointy beard with one hand while he held his white, ornate horn in the other. It was clear that the airmaster was just on his way to wake the others in Kazu's dormitory . He wore a surprised yet curious expression on his face as he approached the two of them.

"Uh...", Kazu and Ryoshi remarked in union, exchanging wide eyes glances, not sure of what to tell the middle aged man.

"You wanna ask him? Now's your chance.", Ryoshi remarked, not meeting Temujin's eye as he looked around, whistling , in a poor attempt to look innocent.

"Okay. Temujin.. Um.. I've been practicing my airbending a lot now, like you wanted me to.. and.. well.. I think I'm ready to try and learn the harder techniques. .", Kazu remarked, a little timidly with a toothy grin. At first, Temujin didn't say anything, simply staring at Kazu , his eyes blinking numerous times . Then, the sudden change of expression to a less than ideal one was drastic.

"What? What brought this on?", Temujin demanded.

"Uh.. Well.. I've been talking to Kenji and he thinks I'm ready to-", Kazu began speaking, a little abashed , but Temujin cut across him.

"KENJI!? What does he know about whether you are ready or not? He's been airbending for over fifteen years and you've just been at it for barely three months!There are thirty-six tiers to airbending training and you are still perfecting the tenth form!", Temujin chided, his nostril flared and his face growing redder as he scolded Kazu. Ryoshi chose to stay silent, eyeing the two of them while he stood around, his hands clasped behind his back as he whistled nonchalantly.

"Okay.. but I was just-", Kazu began, a little tentatively but he stopped mid sentence as Temujin simply turned on his heel and whipped his robes with him, indirectly blasting wind into Kazu's face before the uptight airmaster stormed off to wake up the others.

Kazu grit his teeth and glared after Temujin, his face growing red with anger.

* * *

The group had now finished their dawn patrol and now everybody sat in a lotus pose with Temujin seated in front. The boys and girls were seated in a line, each of them wearing calm expression on their faces , their knuckles lightly touching each other out in front of them . Most of them seemed at peace. Well, Kenji was sitting up sleep, but he was at least relaxed, unlike Kazu, who still had trouble keeping his mind still and thought-free.

The teenaged avatar was rather fidgety and kept glancing around the place, eyeing the others in his class with one eye, leaning forward to check if he was still the only one having trouble with the 'meditation' thing. Kazu was busy eyeing the others when Temujin began speaking again, almost making Kazu yelp in fright as he slammed his eyelids shut quickly.

"Ahhh! Wasn't that simply refreshing? To calm one's outer body and to focus in on our inner consciousness?", Temujin remarked in a happy tone as he smiled up at the class.

"An excellent way to finish off a morning exercise. I will see you all later. Class dismissed.", Temujin continued on, standing up and bowing to his class, his right hand folded into a fist, the knuckles lightly touching the palm of his open left palm.

The class copied his action and departed to do their own activities. Kazu turned to leave but a sudden idea struck him on how to blandish the air master to teach him airbending techniques stood around , his hands in his pockets, whistling nonchalantly as he glanced around the place, waiting for everyone to clear out.

Taking a deep breath, Kazu slowly made the trek towards Temujin's office , where he had just seen the air master go to.

The office was located nearly three storeys up, just opposite the circular meeting room of the air masters. You could reach his office by climbing a set of stone stairs that stuck out of the cliff side ridge. The office architecture was made of stone, just like every other pagoda in the place. It was ten feet in height and was almost fifteen feet in length and width.

Kazu now stood in front of Temujin's emerald office door . He wondered if he should go through with this but his yearning to master all forms of airbending , especially gliding(which he looked forward to the most), egged him on and he took a deep breath before opening the door and entering the office.

Kazu had never been to Temujin's office before. The scent of fresh aloe water and wood filled his nostrils upon entry. There were photographs of Temujin standing with other people that Kazu didn't recognize. Probably important people, since he caught sight of the air master standing with the fire lord, shaking hands. The office was lit up in sunshine that entered the room through the singular squarish open window on the east wall.

Temujin sat on his sturdy wooden chair, behind his wooden desk, a stack of papers in front of him and a pen in his hand . He seemed to be going over his work.A candle was lit and placed on the table as well. He was wearing his black rimmed reading glasses and it hung over his long nose, his keen eyes staring over it at Kazu as the avatar walked into the room.

"Our next training session isn't until evening. ", Temujin remarked with a questioning tone as he looked at the avatar.

" Yes. Okay. And I know that.", Kazu began rather awkwardly.

"But... Um..I need to master airbending as fast as I can, right? I've been repeating the same exercises that you taught me and I think that I'm ready to learn more techniques , if you could teach it to me.", Kazu remarked in the calmest tone he could muster.

"Again with this? I thought I had made it clear.", Temujin remarked, his eyebrow's raised with a less than appealing look on his face.

"I know. But I am serious about this. As the avatar, I need to master all four bending disciplines as fast as I can .",Kazu remarked.

"Bending disciplines?", Temujin snorted as he took his reading glasses of his face, placing them down on the table.

"You have yet to master discipline itself first. Don't think I don't know that you don't even try to concentrate during our morning meditations. I have no interest in teaching you any further until you can master disciplining your own mind. Your mind is impatient and reckless. Patience is an important tool and if you lack this, you will go nowhere, young avatar! ", Temujin retorted, standing up from his chair.

"Your desire to rush things and get it done with is not going to get you what you want.", Temujin continued.

"But even the white lotus tasked you with making sure I learn airbending as fast as possible right?", Kazu bit back and this seemed to catch Temujin off guard and he stood around, trying to find a counter argument to no avail. The air master let out a sigh and began massaging his temple.

Just then, Ryoshi entered the room, carrying a stack of papers and caught sight of the avatar and Temujin looking at him. He caught scent of an argument and gave them an awkward chuckle and moved towards the table as fast as he could,on tip-toes to place the papers . He was just about to turn on his heel and speed away from the room when Temujin called out his name.

"Ryoshi. You have spent more time with the avatar than any of us. Do _you_ think he has mastered the basics ? Do you think he is ready to continue?", Temujin asked with a commanding tone.

"Aw man..", Ryoshi muttered through his teeth as he turned back around to face them slowly. Kazu was grinning up expectantly at Ryoshi and Temujin was giving him a skeptical expression.

"I um.. Guess so. I mean... there isn't a better person to teach airbending to him than you. Under you guidance, I guess he should be alright.", Ryoshi remarked , rubbing the back of his head as he grinned up at his teacher sheepishly. Unseen by Temujin, Kazu gave Ryoshi an enthusiastic thumbs up .

Temujin let out a sigh.

"I suppose there isn't any harm in trying ... Fine. Yes. We will continue our studies today evening.", Temujin replied in an orderly tone. Instantly, Kazu leapt up , punching the air victoriously with an exhilarated expression.

"Finally!", the teenager exclaimed in joy before he paused mid action, his eyes wide open as he caught sight of the two other airbenders in the room staring at him with dumbfounded expressions.

"I mean..", the sixteen year old trailed off as he caught sight of the two airbenders eyeing him. Kazu cleared his throat and stood in a polite statue, bowing to Temujin.

"Thank you, for believing in me and I look forward to it.", Kazu remarked before he pranced out of the room in joy. Temujin stood there, shaking his head as Ryoshi let out a sigh, closing his eyes. He hoped Kazu wouldn't goof this up. Temujin was not so easily swayed like this.

* * *

The evening breeze blew his bangs off his face as Kazu clambered up a very steep mountain top. Temujin lead the way, climbing up the mountain side with air cushions to propel himself up. Kazu followed behind, doing the same air bending move.

Once at the top, Kazu had to admit it. The view of the valley was amazing.

They had flown out here on Temujin's air bison , away from the air temple. Kazu could see a sea of greenery below them, stretching out over miles. He could see the high rising towers of Beltunsh on the horizon and the canyon that was where the hidden air temple was located. He took in a deep breath with a smile plastered on his face, his saffron air bender robes billowing in the strong winds as Temujin stood next to him, his pointy beard being buffeted by the wind and his hands clasped behind his back.

"So. Did you bring me up here to teach me some wild airbending moves?", Kazu inquired expectantly.

"No.", Temujin simply stated and Kazu's face fell.

"What!?", Kazu coughed.

"I brought you up here to learn proper breathing and breath control. Now widen you stance and stay light on your feet.", Temujin remarked as Kazu's jaw dropped in dismay.

"You brought me up here to breathe?", he asked incredulously.

"Yes. Proper breath control is essential if you want to gain proper control over any of the bending an element you are essentially bending the energy that flows through you. You chi. It is a bender's most valuable asset. Your breathing enhances your body's ability to control you chi flow and thus, you will have more control over what and how you bend.", Temujin replied calmly.

"When you bend the air around you, you must feel the air. Feel it enter and leave your body. You must connect with your element on a spiritual level if you want to truly control the element you seek to bend. ", Temujin remarked as Kazu groaned.

"Now to it!", Temujin ordered, stroking his beard as he plopped down to the ground into a lotus position.

"Um..Okay..", he remarked, a little down trodden as he flared his nostril, sucking in as much air as he could through his nose before blowing out through his mouth .

* * *

Ryoshi walked over to Kazu as he clambered down from Temujin's air bison before the air master directed the bison to fly back towards the stables.

"So? How'd it go?", Ryoshi asked with a smile. He was clearly bad at reading facial expressions, for Kazu had a scowl on his face.

"Terrific.", Kazu remarked blandly.

"So.. I'm guessing it didn't go well.", Ryoshi sighed.

" All I did was stand light on my toes, breath and feel the wind for over two hours on a stupid mountain top!", Kazu exclaimed in displeasure.

"Hey. No need to get all worked up about it. Temujin just takes some time warming up to a person. And he's teaching you the proper way on how to do it. My instincts say that you should just stay patient and work with him. It'll pay off in the end. ", Ryoshi remarked as he walked with a disgruntled Kazu back to the diner hall.

"Yeah? Well your instincts SUCKS. And so does this place!", Kazu retorted , throwing his arms up wildly as he stomped away.

"Someone's been having a bad day. ", a female voice remarked and Ryoshi turned to see Kiara walking up to him with her satchel slung over her shoulder. She had just returned from her water works dance academy in Beltunsh.

"You have no idea...", Ryoshi muttered with his shoulders hunched.

* * *

"Why did he have to come along?", Kiara groaned as she, Ryoshi and Kazu sat on Taka's saddle as they flew through the cool morning air. Ryoshi sat on Taka's neck, holding the reins as the other two sat behind him on the saddle. Kazu was still pretty ticked off about Temujin's antics the previous day.

"Well. we do have a lot of sea weed and aloe to buy from the village market so the more hands the merrier... Unless you wanna hold four bags of sea weed by yourself.", Ryoshi remarked.

"Fair point. He can come.", Kiara responded . But they were already airborne, mid way when she made the judgement call and this thought made Ryoshi chuckle lightly.

"Gee! thanks!", Kazu remarked sarcastically as he sat in the wicker saddle, slouched down with his back leaned up, his arms folded across his had his brows furrowed and a pissed off expression on his face

/

One and a half hours later,the threesome stood at a market vendor's stall in the little fishing village of Pinyin .There was a strong scent of fish and everything else ocean related wafting through the market stalls contained a diverse array of sea foo, ranging from ocean karp and shark-squid babies all the way to blue bellies jellifishes. Taka snorted as a few children tried to play with the air bison while it waited.

The vendor was loading sea weed,aloe and kale stocks onto Taka's back in sacks. As the three of them stood there for the vendor to pack the supplies, they noticed that many of the people in the village were looking rather frantic .Many of them were leaving mint-onion leaves around their houses while others were running around, grabbing iron and rock spears and knives. Some even seemed to be worshiping a nine foot tall wooden idol of a giant snake.

"Something seems weird .", Kiara remarked , looking around.

"Um.. what's going on around here?", Ryoshi asked the vendor as he packed.

"Hmm? ", The vendor remarked as he looked up at the three of them , not understanding what they were talking about. Then, as he realized what they were talking about, he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh! They're all preparing for the night in case the Nuwa shows it's ugly head again!", the vendor remarked nonchalantly, as if this were common knowledge. But when he saw the blank looks on the faces of the three teenagers, he cocked his eyebrow.

"Don't tell me ya don't know.", the man remarked with a suspicious expression.

"What's a 'Nuwa'?", Kazu remarked,look at the other two, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"I thought with you being part of the air nation,you should know these stuff by now, anyway...", the vendor remarked at Ryoshi before continuing on.

"The Nuwa is the great sea serpent of the deep . Nobody knows where it comes from or where it lives. But it appears from time to time and it attacks the village on occasions and is known to attack passing by ships and boats . Nothin and no one can stop the Nuwa once it decides to catch ya. And once it thinks you'd make a juicy meal, yer finished! It has been harassing this coast for centuries but there have been increased sightings in the past hundred years. ", the vendor recounted the story with much vigor, talking in a low, enthralling tone.

"And just last morning, the Nuwa struck again, attacking a bunch of our fishing boats. Once the Nuwa attacks, we don't have food for a couple of days. What you're see now is what we're gonna be having for the next few days. ", the vendor finished. The three of them stared at the man with wide eyes and blank expressions, trying to take in the tale . Kiara blinked twice and shook herself out of the stupor.

She now had a contemptuous smirk on her face, her arms folded on her chest.

"Okay. Cool razzle-dazzle, bro. Where'd ya pick this up from? Some old children's novel?", Kiara snorted.

"Well... The existence of sea serpents in the ocean isn't exactly a myth. They _do_ exist..", Ryoshi remarked, his brows furrowed in thought. Kiara gave him a stunned expression.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you're buying all this garbage!", Kiara remarked .At this, the vendor shot Kiara a less than appealing glare. He clearly didn't appreciate her comments.

Ryoshi ignored her and continued on his chain of thought.

"But what I don't understand is what a sea serpent is doing in the shallow waters. They're rarely sighted on coast lines. We may have to look into this. ", Ryoshi finished.

Kiara's jaw dropped.

"WHAT!? I don't believe this story to be true and even if it was, your decision is to stay and investigate instead of alerting the air masters about this problem?", the waterbender exclaimed in dismay.

"Well. Either way, we couldn't report this to the air nation without any solid evidence. So we might as well do some research ourselves and try and help this village in whatever way we can..", Ryoshi remarked .

"What's your opinion. O gracious Avatar?", Kiara suddenly added(once the vendor had gone into his store to bring the next sack), throwing Kazu a glare. Kazu shrugged, making a wordless sound from his throat that distinctly sounded like 'I don't know'.

"Fine. You two bozos wanna stay and help, your problem. You're on your own.I'm going back with the supplies.", Kiara scoffed and turned, making to stride away back to Taka when Ryoshi stepped forth and caught hold of her shoulder, whipping her around.

"Kiara, That serpent may or may not be hunting these people . We need to at least try to help them . How can you be so heartless and turn your back on them?", Ryoshi remarked and he seemed genuinely irritated by Kiara's behavior.

"I'm not being heartless ! I'm just being realistic. Look, I get that you're an airbender and it's in your blood to help every rinky-dink town we wander into. But not everyone shares your ideals, pal.", Kiara retorted as she attempted to march away.

"You do realize that the ten tonne bison isn't going anywhere without Ryoshi.", Kazu remarked with an amused expression. Kiara halted in her tracks as the realization dawned on her. Her face started to grow red with fury.

"FINE! Fine! Let's stay here a bit longer and investigate the case of the monstrous sea serpent, which, by the way, I don't believe exists!", Kiara exclaimed as she turned on her heel and marched right past Kazu and Ryoshi.

"What's her problem?", Kazu asked, scratching his head.

Ryoshi shrugged and both of them followed.

* * *

The three of them now sat on Taka's saddle as the air bison lazily skimmed across the surface of the crystal blue waters that bordered the village. Ryoshi and Kazu peeked over the edge of the saddle as Kiara sat on the bison's head, it's reins in her hand.

Kazu could see no sign of a giant sea monster or anything. But what he did see was a very unpleasant looking coastline. The water had various pieces of plastic and garbage floating around, strewn in hordes around the place. There were certain darkspots here and there that he guessed were oil spill sites. There weren't any fishes to be in sight , even through the coastline was filled with coral reefs.

"You.. see anything?", Kazu asked a little unsurely, tearing his eyes away from the sight .

"Nothing yet.", Ryoshi remarked as he tried to find any signs of a giant sea snake moving underneath the water surface.

"See? What did I tell ya? Nothin but a bunch of lame folklore. ", Kiara snorted.

"Maybe... ", Ryoshi muttered, a little downcast before his face brightened up.

"But the vendor said that there have been many sightings throughout history. I know a place where we can at least grab some info about what this creature could be and if it really does exist", Ryoshi remarked as his face lit up.

"TO THE LIBRARY!", he exclaimed with a deep, manly voice, his brows furrowed, as he pointed ahead with his chest puffed up .

/

Back at the western air temple, Temujin , many of the other air masters and two representatives of the order of the white lotus sat in the temple's meeting room. The lotus members had just broken the news to Temujin that the airbending convict, Ta-lin , had escaped prison and the United Republic borders, all on her own.

"NO! This can't be! That prison was retrofitted to hold Zaheer captive for all his life. And now you're telling me that Ta-lin has escaped?", Temujin exclaimed with a terrified expression. The lotus members didn't say anything, merely exchanging perturbed looks with each other .

"This.. wasn't supposed to happen. She had been imprisoned all these years and she could've escaped and yet, she didn't. But why escape now? ", Temujin remarked, stroking his beard .

"Unless..", Temujin trailed off as a blank expression crept up his face.

"She must have somehow figured out that the avatar has been Korra was the one who put her there in the first She must be after the Avatar!", Temujin exclaimed with a horror struck expression.

"We must fortify the temple. We cannot take any chances. And contact Ryoshi. The avatar is not to leave-", Temujin began to give out orders frantically to the other air masters before one of the white lotus members interjected, raising his hand.

"That... won't be necessary.", he simply remarked. Temujin couldn't believe it. How could they remain so calm when they know how dangerous Ta-lin is.

"What are you talking about? Have you forgotten how she laid waste to the valley the last time? If she gets the avatar, there is no telling what she will do to him. ", Temujin continued on, standing up.

"Ah yes. It's all still fresh in our memories. But you see, the thing is... We have eye witness accounts from many officers on scene . Apparently, she has committed suicide. ", the white lotus member remarked.

"That woman was crazier than a sewer pined elephant-rat.", his compatriot remarked with a sigh.

"She...What!?", Temjjin barked in shock. The other air masters stared on as well, equally as shocked as Temujin was.

"The officers are reporting that she jumped off a bridge into a rapid stream below, off the Beifong Bridge near the Republic and Earth Nation border. Even an airbender as good as she was, couldn't have possibly survived that. ", the white lotus member remarked.

"Still.. This _is_ her who we're talking about. Are.. you sure ?", Temujin inquired, still a little skeptical about Ta-lin's demise.

"Yes. Even the captain of the guard was on duty and he confirmed the report. She's gone, Temujin.", the white lotus member remarked.

"Hmm...", Temujin nodded, stroking his beard, deep in thought.

"And what does Master Jinora think about all this?", Temujin asked. He wanted to know what the grand air master thought, for she was the wisest of them all.

"We.. were just on our way to Republic city, in fact. We thought we'd stop by here and let you know. ", the white lotus remarked.

"I understand. .", Temujin remarked, standing up and bowing to the white lotus members.

The white lotus representatives did the same, bowing to the air master.

* * *

Kazu had his eyes half closed, his elbows resting on the wooden table of the village library . His mouth was partially open and his left palm was stacked up against his cheek as he tried his best not to snore in a library. Kiara sat across from him on the table, slurping on a cup of the local leechi nut juice with a bored expression on her face. Ryoshi sat next to Kazu, his face rapt with attention as he was deeply engrossed in a thick book about the history of the local province. There was a stack of books out in piles in front of him and he had just gone through three out of five so far.

"Bingo!", Ryoshi suddenly piped up, causing Kazu to almost fall of his chair in a jolt of shock.

"What did you find, O great library master?", Kiara snorted as she and Kazu drew closer to the table. Ryoshi threw her a cock eyed stare. He then turned his gaze back to the thick book in front of him, reading out what the page said.

" _The 'Nuwa' or the 'Nugua' , as it is known in other places, is a giant, terrifying, manifestation of the ocean spirit. The ocean spirit usually dwells in the spirit oasis of the north with the moon spirit, both in Karp form. But it assumes it's more terrifying appearance from time to time, across the centuries. It first emerged over five thousand years ago, during the time of Avatar Han. The spirit was destroying all the royal navy ships. The Earth King at the time seeked help from the Avatar, who was able to pacify the ocean spirit and it stopped attacking the king's fleet. The spirit vanished and wasn't seen again for another two thousand years_.", Ryoshi read out the transcript .

"Now it sounds even more made up. I mean, a giant terrifying sea snake Ocean spirit? I mean, come on!", Kiara scoffed.

"Wow. You're even more narrow minded than I initially thought.", Kazu snickered . Kiara gave him a dirty glare.

"It doesn't matter. Now we know what the Nuwa is and how to stop it!", Ryoshi remarked excitedly.

"Sure!No biggie! I'll get right on chatting with a giant terrifying ocean spirit monster.. thingy.", Kazu remarked sardonically.

"No. That's not what I meant. We know that the sea serpent is an ocean spirit, not some huge sea monster. So if it's a spirit, there must be a reason why it's attacking everyone again. ", Ryoshi remarked with his brows furrowed in thought.

"So what does the giant spirit snake want?", Kazu inquired, scratching his head.

"I don't know, but we should probably show the village's council all that we've found.", Ryoshi remarked.

/

"So you think that the Nuwa is in fact an dark spirit?", the grand elder of the council remarked with a skeptical expression.

Three of them stood in a circular hut made of bamboo and earth. It was located in the center of the little village . There weren't any modern equipment in sight either . There was a semi-circled table made of rock that sat erected in the center of the wide room, with ten , very old looking men in long flowing green robes . They all wore a squarish green hat that sat atop their heads.

The council room smelt of burning candle-wax and amber.

"Not a dark spirit. It's the ocean spirit,sir.", Ryoshi corrected the village elder.

"Hmm.", the council elder hummed, stroking his beard with a skeptical look on his face. He eyed the three newcomers one by one ; Ryoshi was standing there, giving the council his rapt attention with a concerned look on his face, Kazuhiko stood behind him, looking around the place with a zoned out expression on his face and Kiara stood next to Kazu, a bored expression on her face as she stood there, her arms folded across her chest.

"Very well. But your book only says that Avatar Han managed to persuade the spirit to leave the king's fleet alone . It does not tell how or what he did to change it's it's not like we have an Avatar to look to help us.", the elder remarked with a strained expression. Kazu and Kiara exchanged silent, wide eyed glances with each other.

"I'm not entirely sure, but he must have made some form of spiritual connection with the ocean spirit. I may not be as powerful in spiritual energy as Avatar Han , but I can try talking to it. It might just work. ", Ryoshi remarked .

Upon hearing this outlandish suggestion, all the council elders exchanged bewildered glances.

" Well. I suppose we haven't tried that yet. Fine. You may do what is necessary. The Nuwa usually makes an appearance during the dusk hour. You may want to prepare yourself if you intend on talking the spirit out of attacking us.", the council elder remarked.

"Thank you, sir.", Ryoshi remarked politely and bowed to them.

* * *

"You don't think this is actually gonna work now ,is it?", Kazu inquired as the three of them sat on Taka's saddle with the air bison skimming across the water surface.

It was now dusk and the sky was lit up in shades of orange and purple. The sun was beginning to sink back into the ocean and the sea breeze was beginning to get colder.

"But we have to try. It's a spirit. It should be able to understand where we're coming from. ", Ryoshi remarked with a serious expression.

"Well.. Let's hope your plan works.", Kazu nodded.

/

For another forty minutes, they simply flew across the ocean surface at a medium pace, the three of them looking around to see if there were any movements underneath the watery surface. But time was beginning to run out and so was their patience.

"Did the giant scary spirit decide to take a holiday to Ember Island or something? I mean, we've been out for hours and not even a single sign!?", Kazu groaned out loud for what was the seventh time now.

"Actually, we've been out here for only forty minutes but I'm with the Avatar on this one.", Kiara remarked , yawning.

"Gee, thanks for the vote.", Kazu remarked at her with a sarcastic tone.

Ryoshi , who was sitting on top of Taka's neck in a lotus position, let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine. Let's head back. Look's like the spirit's a no show. We'll have to tell the council and try and come up with a new plan tomorrow. ", Ryoshi remarked.

He pulled at Taka's reins and the directed the air bison back towards the village in the distance. But unbeknownst to the trio, they were silently being followed by a giant glowing spirit that swam in a snake-like motion underneath the ocean surface, stalking the air bison without making a sound.

The three of them kept on flying, oblivious to the danger the was following them . All of a sudden, Kazu didn't know what, but he felt a strange presence and he had never felt such a sensation before. He didn't know why and he couldn't explain it but he felt like they were being followed .He _knew_ they were being followed.

"Guys... Um... do you feel-", he began but he was cut off when a screeching sound rang out through the air and a second later,the water surface broke in a concussive force as the giant serpent spirit of the ocean shot up , it's mouth wide open as it aimed towards the flying bison.

"ARGHHH!", the three of them yelped in shock.

Ryoshi grit his teeth and yanked hard at Taka's reins,narrowly managing to evade the mouth of the giant serpent as it shot past them.

Kiara sat there, her eyes wide open with a shocked expression on her face.

"Now do you believe ?!", Ryoshi yelled as he fought to steer the panicked air bison skyward, hoping to keep themselves out of the reach of the giant spirit that was attacking them. Just then, the Nuwa attempted to snap it's giant jaws at Taka again. Ryoshi was forced to almost strangle Taka with the reins as he yanked and tugged hard at it.

"Sorry Buddy! But I had to do it or we would've ended up as spirit lunch!", Ryoshi apologized to his air bison as it cooed reproachfully at him.

Ryoshi turned back to Kiara.

"Kiara! Take the reins. I'm gonna try and see what the spirit wants. Maybe I can try and connect with it's spirit force.

"I had imagined a thousand ways I'd die. But getting eaten by a giant spirit monster wasn't one of them!", Kiara yelped as she scuttled over to take the reins.

Ryoshi attempted to move towards the back end of Taka's saddle but was getting tossed around with Kazu due to Kiara's bad steering.

"Keep steady! I can't talk to the spirit with you turning this into a carnival ride!", Ryoshi exclaimed as he caught Kazu's hand at the last second, just before he was about to get tossed out of the bison saddle entirely.

"I'm sorry! But I don't plan on being spirit dinner while you and the Nuwa exchange pleasantries over tea!", Kiara yelled back with a furious expression on her face.

A few more strained seconds later, Kiara finally got the frantic air bison to calm down and they were finally passively flying through the air, with a giant spirit snake following them it's head almost sixteen feet out of the water.

"SPIRIT ,PLEASE! WHY ARE YOU ANGRY WITH US? WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OFFEND YOU!?", Ryoshi yelled to the spirit at the top of his voice. For a brief moment after Ryoshi's inquiry, the giant spirit did nothing, simply staring at the three of them as it followed them almost looked like it could understand what Ryoshi was , in a sudden motion, it opened it's jaws wide and attempted to to devour them whole.

Kazu leapt forward instinctively and shot a powerful fire stream at the spirit, hitting it hard on impact, forcing it to recoil backwards .

"No! Don't! It'll only make it angrier!", Ryoshi chided at Kazu.

But it was too late. The damage had already been done. The spirit's yellow eyes began to glow and Kiara narrowly managed to divert Taka out of the way as the spirit serpent shot a powerful blast of translucent, bluish spirit energy at them from it's gaping mouth.

Kazu didn't stop to think as he leapt up yet again, shooting fire whips and fire jets at the spirit, meeting it head Nuwa recoiled, screeching in anger at the Avatar as his firebending shot struck it. The angry spirit's eyes and mouth began to glow greenish again and it shot spirit energy at them .

"See what I mean?!", Ryoshi yelped at Kazu as Taka ducked out of the way.

"Hey! I was just trying to stop the giant spirit thingy from making lunch outta us. How was I supposed to know not to attack a spirit? I mean, it's not like there's anyone to teach me this kinda stuff!All I got is Temujin who only teaches me how to squat and breath and feel the wind!", Kazu yelped back.

Ryoshi let out a frustrated sigh as he moved back and snatched the reins from Kiara's grasp.

"I'll get us outta here before anything gets worse.", Ryoshi remarked as he attempted to steer Taka nose up towards the clouds. The air bison swiveled on it's way up, avoiding the spirit energy blasts that was being shot at them from below by the giant Nuwa. When they had gained enough height , they slowed down their ascent, now flying just below the belt of clouds in the evening sky.

"Um... Guys.. I don't see our spirit monster. Where'd it go?", Kiara remarked, looking around the edge of Taka's saddle as they slowed down their ascend.

Kazu moved towards the edge and looked around as well. The giant spirit serpent, which had been attacking them just seconds before, was nowhere to be seen. It looked like it had seemingly vanished.

"Maybe it went back to the spirit world?", Kiara suggested with a shrug.

"Not likely. The ocean spirit lived in the mortal world long before Avatar Korra re-opened the spirit portals. ", Ryoshi remarked.

Kazu, who had been staying silent so far, caught sight of something glowing, moving in the direction of the village .His eyes widened in shock as he realized what it was.

"Guys. I think I just found where the Nuwa is.", Kazu remarked, pointing at the giant glow heading in the direction of the village.

"No..", Ryoshi gasped in shock. There were innocent people there, who had no idea of the danger heading in their direction.

/

The villagers were going about their routines, some preparing boats in case the three youngsters who had offered to try and stop the Nuwa needed help.A mother was dragging her child along ,frantically trying to get to safe ground. In the rush, the little girl dropped her stuff doll on the ground and wriggled out of her mother's death grip .She hurried over to the edge of the dock where her doll lay. As she picked it up, she noticed that the water surface was beginning to curdle and shake violently. The mother hurried back, grabbing her child and sprinted back up the slopes.

Then, catching everyone by surprise, the water surface broke and the giant Nuwa shot it's terrifying head out of the water, almost fifteen feet into the air before it reared up and began shooting translucent spirit energy at the village, absolutely demolishing the wooden and earth houses into splinters upon impact.

It then shot it's massive tail out of the water and began slashing at the group of earthbenders who had grouped up, trying to bend boulders at the spirit. Taking offense at being bent at, the Nuwa screeched out loud, expressing it's displeasure . Then it's eyes and mouth began to glow and the men had mere seconds to earthbend themselves out of the way as the Nuwa shot spirit energy at them, forcing them all to cower and split up.

The Nuwa reared up and opened it's gaping mouth wide again, ready to blast spirit energy at the village when a sudden powerful fire blast struck it on the back of it's ginormous head. With smoke trailing off it's head, it turned it's gaze in the direction of it's attackers to find the air bison flying away.

"COME GET US, UGLY!", Kiara yelled at it from the saddle as Kazu shot a continuous fire stream at the giant spirit.

"I told you, don't bend at it! It'll only make it worse!", Ryoshi yelped.

The Nuwa screeched in displeasure and changed it's course, leaving the bay of the village entirely as it chased after the fleeing air bison.

"What in the world are they doing?!", one of the elders of the council remarked with a confused look on his face as the people watched the Nuwa chasing after the air bison.

/

"Um.. What in the world are we doing!?", Kiara yelped at Ryoshi as she saw the spirit serpent giving chase.

"I'm trying to lure the Nuwa away from the coast. Maybe all the negative energy from the village must be affecting it. If we can get it to calm down enough, maybe we can talk to it. See what it wants.", Ryoshi exclaimed out loud .

"Are you crazy?!", Kazu yelped in fright.

Just then, the three of them heard the familiar screeching noise and they whipped around to find the Nuwa merely inches away from Taka and it's eyes and mouth were beginning to glow as it prepared to blast at them with spirit energy.

"I've had enough of giant sea monsters for lifetime!",Kazu roared impatiently and shot fire balls straight into the Nuwa's mouth, with the giant spirit screeching each time his bending made contact.

"Kazu, don't!", Ryoshi yelled back but it was too late.

As Kazu turned back to argue with the airbender, the Nuwa shot a blast of spirit energy at Taka, and the air bison swiveled one-hundred and eighty degrees in panic,narrowly avoiding the blast. But in the ensuing chaos, Kazuhiko , who had been standing up, shooting fire at the spirit, lost his footing and was seemingly tossed out of the air bison's saddle and Ryoshi only realized what had happened a little too late .

"KAZU!", Ryoshi and Kiara yelped simultaneously as they watched him fly out of the saddle.

The two of them watched as Kazu clawed at the air as he tumbled downwards. He managed to catch hold onto one of the Nuwa's giant whiskers . The spirit growled at him as he looked up at it in fright.

"Uh...Heh-Heh.. good spirit..", Kazu remarked with an awkward chuckle .

"Kazu.. Don't do anything stupid. ", Ryoshi remarked quietly.

"Don't do anything stupid while I hang off the whisker of a spirit monster that wants to eat me? No problem!", Kazu chided.

Then, before he knew what was happening, the Nuwa began to shake it's head violently from left to right, as if trying to throw the pest on it's whisker. Kazu screamed out in fright as he clung onto the spirit's whisker with all his strength but there was now way he could hold on forever. The spirit flipped it's head sideways and threw the screaming teenager off it's whisker.

"NO!", Ryoshi yelled frantically as he and Kiara clambered to the edge of the bison saddle to see Kazuhiko breaking the water surface in a violent splash before he disappeared beneath the watery depths. No sooner was the avatar gone, the giant spirit seemed to give up it's attack and it simply snorted at Ryoshi and Kiara before it dove back down into the watery depths.

"Um.. Did...we just kill the avatar?", Kiara asked quietly. Although she and the avatar didn't get along that well, the fright was clearly written on her face.

* * *

The first thing Kazu felt was his head hurting a lot. He felt rather groggy and light headed. And he could still feel his stomach stinging from his belly flop into the water. The water!

As he remembered what had happened, his eyes shot wide open in shock, leaping up as he looked around . The darkening waters told him that it was almost nightfall now and he seemed to be in the water itself.

He was sitting up on the sandy ocean floor but he couldn't feel the water around him. He could breathe normally under the water just like he could on land. His lungs expanded and contracted as if nothing was was weird.

Bewildered, he looked down at his hands to see a greenish glow emanating around his palms and body.

All of a sudden, he felt something move behind him and he leapt up to his feet , whipping around to find the Nuwa a few feet away from him, simply staring at him silently.

"ARGH!", Kazu yelped, throwing his arms up in fright as he leapt backwards. He instinctively attempted to shoot fire at the spirit in front of him. But nothing worked.

"What?", he muttered , glancing down at his palms. He tried again. And again. Not even a spark.

"Um.. You're not gonna eat me, are you?", Kazu asked the spirit tentatively. There was no sudden movements and no blasting of spirit energy . So he was safe. At least for now.

"Am I... dead?", Kazu asked himself as the thought entered his could breathe under water and he couldn't bend. That was the only logical answer. He suddenly heard a voice inside his head, telling him that he wasn't. A female voice.

Instantly, his eyes shot wide open and glared around in fright. There was nobody in sight.

"Who said that!?", Kazu yelped.

He heard it again. The low female voice that echoed inside his head. His eyes widened in shock as he understood. He wheeled around to face the Nuwa as the spirit watched him with a passive expression.

"You can.. TALK!?", Kazu asked out incredulously, eyeing it. It didn't say anything, simply staring at Kazu in a passive took that as a yes.

"Um.. So.. Okay.. Why are you attacking the village? Why are you killing all the people?", Kazu asked out.

There was no voice ringing inside his head this time, but one of the Nuwa's long whiskers began to stretch out , creeping Kazu entirely as it approached him. Before he could react to it, the tip of the whisker had made contact with his forehead and Kazu's face instantly wore a blank expression as fuzzy visions that weren't his began filling up side his head.

/

"Still no sign of him!", Kiara yelled back as she and Ryoshi scoured the water surface for any sign of the teenaged avatar whose Impatience had just resulted in him getting tossed into the watery depths with an angry spirit.

"It had been almost ten minutes now and they still had no idea where Kazu was.

"You don't think the Nuwa's eaten him , do you? I mean, the villagers did say that the spirit has eaten many of their would an untrained Avatar be any different?", Kiara remarked, a little frightened.

"Keep searching! We can't give up yet. ", Ryoshi called back as he continued his search, tugging at Taka's reins to take them down lower , closer to the water surface.

/

Back under the watery depths, Kazu was standing motionless on the sandy sea bed , visions being fed to his mind by the giant spirit whose eyes were glowing greenish.

Kazu first saw someone he didn't recognize. A man with a black goatee and shoulder length black hair. Kazu guessed that it was Avatar Han, since the man's eyes began to glow bright white as he connected with the ocean spirit. Another vision showed a young , bald headed boy with airbending tattoos on his head, staring down at the ocean spirit, sitting in a lotus position, as it swam with the moon spirit in the spirit oasis pond. Then, the boy's eyes and tattoos began to glow white. Kazu easily recognized Avatar Aang.

Then the scene changed and there were visions of the Nuwa's encounters with man over the centuries. How man had treated the ocean badly, with no regard. Then there were visions of many men and women, who were thought to have been eaten, their spirits trapped with the Nuwa. Then he was seeing heavy damage to the marine life, ocean dwelling creatures dying in toxic waters, the dumping of oil wastes and the sewer garbage, the overfishing being done by the villagers and the coral mining of the provincial government. He could feel rage and anger rushing through his veins but it wasn't his. These visions weren't his memories either. It was a surreal experience but he couldn't explain it.

Then, the ocean spirit detached it's whisker from Kazu's forehead and instantly Kazuhiko felt drained and groggy. He felt so weak that he almost lost his footing due to weak felt like had had just run a marathon or something.

He didn't know how , but he understood what the Nuwa wanted. Why it was attacking the people.

" I see what you want. ", Kazu remarked quietly.

"Um.. and I'm sorry about bending fire at you. I guess Temujin was right. I need to work on mastering discipline itself first. I guess I can be rather short-tempered and impatient,but I'm working on it. I may have done some stuff today without thinking it through. I'm sorry.", Kazu remarked, smiling awkwardly .

Kazu looked up at the Nuwa and the thirty foot ocean spirit looked back down at him with a calm expression.

/

"Are you sure that you checked that ledge?Any sign of him?", Ryoshi called out as Kiara waterbent herself back onto Taka's saddle. She had just got down from the air bison to check a mossy heap of wet rock that protruded out of the ocean, to check for Kazu.

"Nope.", Kiara remarked, letting out a sigh.

"Come on!.. I told him not to mess around with a does he listen to me? No!", Ryoshi groaned.

"Let's trying going over that bay once more. ", Ryoshi remarked, furrowing his brows as he yanked Taka's reins, to steer the air bison rightward.

"Ryoshi.. I don't think that-", Kiara began before she was cut off by a giant splashing noise underneath them and Taka growled in shock as he swerved out of the way.

"What the-", Kiara was about to curse as she picked herself up from the awkward position she had ended up in. But she trailed off as she caught sight of what had made all the ruckus.

Up ahead of them, clearly visible , was the glowing form of the Nuwa, it's body an incandescent white against the black backdrop of the night. And on top of the giant spirit, on it's head, stood Kazuhiko, his hands clasped around one of the giant spirit's spinal horns.

"Are .. you seeing this orrrr... am I having a really, really weird dream?", Kiara muttered to Ryoshi, her eyes and jaw wide open . His facial expression was identical to hers as they both stared at what they were seeing in disbelief.

/

The villagers watched with dumbfounded expressions on their faces as the Nuwa approached the docks with the teenaged firebender standing on top of the giant sea spirit .Most of the people backed out with slightly frightened faces as the spirit lowered it's giant head so that Kazu could jump down onto the wooden docks.

As soon as he was clear, the spirit rose it's head back up, and instantly, it's eyes began to glow pearly white. Not a second later, the many men and women who were thought to have been eaten by the Nuwa seemingly appeared out of the waves, all of them floating passively on the water surface with their eyes closed as if they were asleep. Then, all of them simultaneously began to cough and thrash around as they came all looked around with blank expressions on their faces.

The giant ocean spirit gave one large screech and down back down into the watery depths, it's glowing body fading after a few prolonged seconds.

Kazu looked around to see the many villagers eyeing him with dumbfounded expressions on their faces, no one daring to speak.

Kazu didn't know what to do, so he ended up flashing them a toothy grin and an awkward shrug. Just then, there was a gust of wind being blown and Taka descended, landing down next to Kazuhiko. Ryoshi and Kiara still sat on Taka, wide eyed, giving Kazu the same expression the others were.

/

"So that is what the spirit wants?", the council elder remarked as Ryoshi recounted to the village council what all Kazu had told him.

"Um.. Yes...", Ryoshi nodded awkwardly.

He could tell that the other council members were eyeing Kazuhiko , who was standing toward the back of the room, doing his best to avoid their gaze.

Kazu was still just as shocked as the others as to how he had done it. Well, if he was being honest with himself, he hadn't really done anything. The giant ocean spirit simply singled him out from the other two and communicated with him. Kazu didn't do any 'avatar ' stuff per se.

The council elders in the room exchanged silent glances with each other. Then, to the surprise of the three visitors in the room, they all bowed respectfully to them.

"Thank you for helping us, Avatar.", the grand elder remarked with a smile.

The Jaws of Ryoshi, Kazu and Kiara almost hit the floor as the three of them stared back at the elders,frozen in shock. Kazu had been hoping to avoid this.

"You all look confused..", the elders remarked. Kazu shook himself out of his stupor.

'Yeah.. I mean.. why would you.. Uhheh.. Think that I'm .. the avatar.. and stuff? ", Kazu asked, perplexed, trying his best to sound convincing.

"A firebender wearing air acolyte clothing, who just happens to be traveling with an airbender and a waterbender on an airbison, diving into danger just to help people they barely even know? Who else could you be?", one of the elder chuckled merrily as Kazu looked down at what he was wearing.

"The only other person to be able to pacify the Nuwa spirit was Avatar Han. ", the grand elder added. "Don't worry. We won't breathe a word of this to anyone.".

Kazu stood motionless, glancing at Ryoshi for assistance. The airbender let out a small sigh .

"We would be grateful if you would not tell anyone of this finding.", Ryoshi remarked in a relaxed fashion.

Kazu glanced at Kiara who was giving him an expression that implied to just go with the flow. Kazu turned to the elders with a smile. It was time for a real introduction.

"I'm Kazuhiko.", he remarked with a smile. "This is Ryoshi and that's Kiara.", Kazu added.

"Nice to finally meet you.", the grand elder remarked."A lot of people have been waiting a long time for you to show up.".

"Well.. Um.. I guess they're gonna have to wait a bit longer.", Kazu chuckled awkwardly. "You see, I'm still in training and still figuring out how all this works.".

"You'll get there soon enough.", the elders chuckled. "Until then, we wish you the best for your journey, Avatar Kazuhiko.".

* * *

The three of them were flying back to the air temple on Taka with the cool, chilly night sky cast out over them. Ryoshi sat on Taka's neck in a lotus position. Kiara sat opposite Kazu in a slightly more slouchy position with her knees hugged close to her chest. But both of them wore the same blank wide eyes expression as they stared at Kazu.

"Okay, will you two quit doing that? It's really starting to creep me out.", Kazu snapped with an irritated expression.

"How in the name of all things spirits, did you connect with the ocean spirit!?", Ryoshi shrugged.

"I dunno. It just sorta happened. One thing I know, I was falling into the water, the next thing I know, I'm sitting on the ocean floor, talking with a giant snake spirit thingy.", Kazu responded.

Ryoshi tried to come up with an argument but failed to do so, instead letting out a defeated sigh.

"Well.. the village elders found out who you were due to your little show..What am I gonna tell Temujin...", Ryoshi sighed.

Kazu cocked his eyebrow.

"Aaand.. Why _should_ you tell him? I mean, what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right? And besides, those old guys back there gave us their word that they wouldn't tell.", Kazu remarked, eyeing Ryoshi, whose eyes widened.

"But it's not the right thing to do. Temujin will need to know that your identity is not entirely a secret anymore.", Ryoshi remarked.

" Fine. Go ahead. Be the teacher's pet.", Kazu remarked coolly.

" I am not the teacher's pet! I'm just looking out for you.", Ryoshi snapped back as he turned back around. A sly smirk crept over Kazu's face.

"But... on second thought.. If you tell Temujin about what I did.. I'm not so sure I could keep my mouth shut about that lovely dame Ika from Quan-Lao who you've got the hots for.. Imagine what someone like Kenji might do with this sort of information.", Kazu remarked nonchalantly.

Ryoshi's spine jerked in shock and he whipped around with a threatening glare at Kazu as Kiara gasped with a stunned expression.

"Oh my goodness.. You and Ika... Ika and you..", Kiara muttered to herself with a blank expression on her face as she put the pieces together. Then, her face lit up in a gleeful smile.

"You two are into each other!? When did _this_ happen?!", Kiara remarked, clasping her hands together rather girlishly as she pouted up at Ryoshi.

"I'm not.. into her! It's not like... Um.. Nothing.. Happened! You shut up!", Ryoshi hissed at her as she began to chortle out loud, clutching her stomach.

"And you..", Ryoshi hissed at Kazu, pointing his index finger at the avatar's nose. His finger shook in anger for a second before he whipped back around, blasting wind into Kazu's face in the turn.

"Fine.. Have it your way... ", Ryoshi sighed.

" Thank you, loverboy!', Kazuhiko remarked with an innocent tone as Kiara continued to chortle.

Ryoshi's back hunched over as he whipped at Taka's reins, flying them through the inky blackness of night with an embarrassed blush on his cheeks.

* * *

 **Any suggestions and constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks for reading!**

 **Until next time, Avatar,Yip-Yip!**


	6. Chapter 6 - Friends And Foes

**Legend Of Korra and all other 'Avatar' related Material are owned by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko**

 **BOOK ONE : ACCEPTANCE**

Chapter Six - Friends And Foes

* * *

 _Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring peace and balance to the world._

* * *

Ryoshi, Kazu and Kiara were seated together at the breakfast table . Steaming hot bowls of soup and leafy noodles sat under their noses as Kazu held out the news paper in front of him,running his eyes along the fine print. It had been a while since he had got his hands on one of these and he wasn't really an avid reader either. The teenaged avatar had his mouth stuffed as he furrowed his brows, reading the headlines which reported about more bandit attacks along the province and of rail rovers, a mystery group of thugs that hit the maglev trains that connected the cities of the earth nation.

"Shame that only metalbenders can play power disk. I've always wanted to try it..", Kazu remarked with a wide eyed expression, his irises glued to the article reporting about the power disk championship game that took place last night.

"You'll be able to metalbend sooner or later. It's just a matter of _years_. ", Ryoshi remarked calmly as he held up his bowl to his mouth, slurping up his noodles.

"YEARS!?", Kazu choked with a shocked expression. Kiara snorted out loud , slamming her palm on the table.

"What? You didn't really think that you'd get in, do your 'avatar training' and get out in a few months did you?", Kiara chortled at his shocked expression. Kazu clenched his teeth and threw her a spiteful glare.

"I don't seem to remember asking for your opinion.", Kazu huffed at her as she smirked back at him in a taunting manner.

"By the way,you've got your water-works dance performance in two days, right?" , Ryoshi asked her with a smile. He had been to around four of Kiara's performances but most of the times, she had only a small part in the overall performance. This time, however, she had got the lead part.

"Yeah.. But doesn't matter anyways. I'm the understudy. Mai-ling is the main lead. ", Kiara remarked in a relaxed manner as she slurped up her tea.

"Oh. ", Ryoshi mumbled, slightly put off.

Kiara noticed Ryoshi's slightly down trodden look and felt sympathetic. After all, he was her only best friend. He was more like her brother than her actual brother had ever been.

"Well.", Kiara continued ,"I've got practice today. You can come if you want. I've gotta get going.I'll see ya when I see ya." .

Kiara stood up and left the dining hall, waving to Ryoshi as he waved back. Kazu just politely ignored her exit altogether.

"Are you going to her practice?", Kazu asked incredulously.

"Mhmm. ", Ryoshi nodded . " You can come if you want.".

"Sorry. Can't .Even If I wanted to. Haven't you heard? Some crazy convict lady broke outta prison to come after me but ended up killing herself. But Temujin apparently doesn't believe it even though there are police reports verifying it. ", Kazu groaned.

"Kazu, he's just trying to keep you safe and focused on your avatar training.", Ryoshi responded as he finished his bowl.

"Is that why he's got all these white lotus sentries around? To watch my every move?", Kazu asked with a cocked eyebrow, nodding at the twelve men and women standing guard around the dining hall, wearing the easily recognizable navy blue white lotus uniforms.

"Fine. I guess. He's being a little paranoid.", Ryoshi admitted. He continued to slurp his noodles until he noticed Kazu giving him a pleading expression.

"And...I guess I'll go and talk to him. Maybe he'll let you leave the temple if you're with me.",Ryoshi sighed as he got up.

"Yes!", Kazu exclaimed victoriously, earning him a few bewildered glances from the airbenders sitting on the table next to his.

"Sorry.", he mumbled, a little embarrassed as he buried his nose in the paper again.

/

"You've never ridden on a maglev train before? How come?", Ryoshi asked with a stunned expression as the two of them sat in their seats on the state of the art Varrick Industries maglev trains, on the way to Beltunsh.

The train was a must-see tourist attraction in these parts, since the trains ran on magnetism, floating inches above the platinum train tracks instead of using the traditional wheels. The trains were a more modernized and updated version of the ones that ran through Zaofu during the time of Varrick Sr, almost fifty years ago.

"Well.. You don't get these in the fire nation. And.. I've never actually been anywhere outside the place until now.", Kazu remarked as he reclined back in his seat .

"I still don't see why Temujin had to have a lotus sentry come along with us.", Kazu grumbled, eyeing the female who sat on the other seat of the isle, reading a magazine. Thank Agni she wasn't wearing her white lotus uniform. Her casual way of dressing made it less embarrassing for Kazu to have himself constantly being watched.

"It was either this or you stay back.", Ryoshi whispered as he looked out the window to see the landscape whizzing by in the blink of an eye.

/

As Ryoshi and Kazu finally found their way to the building that was Kiara's dance academy, on their way in, a silvery metallic rod shot out in front of them and stopped them from moving any further. As their eyes followed the rod, they found it's owner. A security guard wearing red framed sunglasses with star shaped lenses . He also seemed to be sporting a pencil mustache .As they eyed him, he grinned at them from under his bushy afro hairstyle and his accentuated sideburns that got wider the further down.

"You are not allowed entry into the premises, sirs and madam.", the guard remarked proudly as he stuck his belly out importantly. Kazu, Ryoshi and the lotus sentry with them exchanged perplexed glances with each other.

"Um.. We're actually here to see a friend of ours. She's a dancer at this place. Her name's Ki-", Ryoshi began, trying to speak diplomatically to the guard but the man just ended up cutting the airbender off mid sentence.

"A-tha-tha-tha! No exceptions. Got strict orders from above,dude. For all I know, y'all could be some rival dance academy spy or somethin. So why don't you all just turn around and make your way back ? Make love. Not war.", the guard remarked in a drauling and trancelike voice.

"But we were just..", Ryoshi tried to get through to the guard and the man cut him off yet again.

"Talk to the hand!", he remarked smartly and held up his palm to Ryoshi's face,inches away from his nose.

"You want me to remove him?", the lotus sentry with them whispered to Kazu and the avatar chuckled awkwardly, shaking his head. "I got it. Watch and learn."

Since he had grown up on the streets of Capital city, he had done his fair share of hustling and he knew a briber when he saw one. With a smirk on his face, Kazu strolled up to the guard .

"Say,my peace loving friend.", Kazu remarked coyly as he slipped his arm around the short man's shoulders."Howsabout I get you a nice, creamy pastry from this awesome shop down the road? You look really tired and I imagine your boss doesn't pay ya enough for all the good work ya do for him.", Kazu remarked as he slowly led the man away from his post.

Just then, the man's stomach grumbled and he rubbed it in an uneasy manner.

"I do like em soft n squishy coco skimmers.. with the soft and caramelly custard cream..", the guard remarked, licking his lips.

"There ya go!", Kazu cheered as he and the man rounded a corner. The lotus sentry and Ryoshi exchanged bewildered looks with each other.

A few minutes later, Kazu returned but without the man . He clasped his hands out and stretched with a coy smile on his face as he approached them.

"What happened?",Ryoshi inquired.

"A trader never reveals his tricks.", Kazu remarked smartly as he walked forward and pushed the doors open.

Ryoshi gave the lotus sentry a harmless shrug as hey followed the avatar through.

/

Kazu, Ryoshi and the white lotus sentry walked through the twenty foot tall metallic doorway that led to the practice hall of the dance academy that Kiara attended. The hall was rather breathtaking, Kazu had to admit, for the walls were coated with a perfectly tempered layer of icing that made the place sparkle ever so lightly. The effervescent aroma of liquified water spread through the air as they walked in. There were arched windows that were almost four feet in length,lining the giant walls and the air within the hall itself was much cooler that the outside temperature, since it was being controlled by the waterbenders in the hall.

The walls and domed ceiling were covered in intricately designed artwork , tiny details etched across the icing. All in all, the place looked like a giant ice palace like those you could see in the water tribes.

As the trio walked in, looking around with wide eyes, they caught sight of at least a dozen water benders moving around the center of the hall, their feet frozen in thin coatings of ice that made it easy for them to skate along the floor. They skated along in symmetrical patters, with a giant revolving water cymbal that circulated in the center of the formation.

"Is this.. some kind of combat training ?", the female lotus sentry whispered to Ryoshi, who gave the woman an amused glance.

"No. They're practicing for an upcoming dance performance. ", Ryoshi answered as Kazu gave the woman an incredulous expression.

"You know, when I said you could come, I meant you could come alone.", a familiar female voice piped up from behind them and the trio whipped around to see Kiara standing behind them. She was wearing the black dance body suit like the other dancers and her feet too were coated in a layer of ice.

"So this is where you do your.. waterbending dance?", Kazu remarked , walking around as he surveyed the area. He was oblivious to the few people who were glancing at him and the other two, wondering who the visitors were.

"No . This is the place I go to when I feel like relaxing and bathing in the sun.", Kiara remarked smartly. Kazu simply gave her a poker face.

"Would you two give it a rest for once?", Ryoshi groaned.

"And who are your friends, Kiara?", a female voice spoke up from behind them and the group turned to see a middle aged woman who looked to be in her fifties approaching them. Her wavy,grey hair was cut very short, and it was elongated towards one side as it fell across her face, framing it. She had a silvery headband on her forehead, holding her wavy bangs up and out of her crystal blue eyes as she eyed them. The woman had a sense of authority about her but she also had one of those easily approachable faces.

"Oh!", Kiara remarked with a jolt. " Miss Suma, um.. this is Ryoshi, that's Kazuhiko and that is…", Kiara paused awkwardly, not knowing the name of the lotus sentry who was with the other two.

"Senna. Pleased to meet you.", the sentry remarked quickly with a smile.

"Guys.. This is my teacher.", Kiara nodded, introducing them.

"Well it's always a pleasure to meet new people. Friends of my pupils are always welcome here. But the performance is only in two days. I think you're a little early.", Suma remarked pleasantly.

"Oh. No. We came to see Kiara practice.", Kazu blurted out .

"Anyway. Make yourselves comfortable. I've got a formation to perfect!", Suma chirped before she skated away.

"She seems nice.", Ryoshi remarked with a smile.

"Don't be fooled. She's super serious about her dance formations. You don't wanna get on her bad side.", Kiara grumbled in a low voice.

"I bet I can be a better waterbender than her if I learn waterbending.", Kazu whispered to Ryoshi as Kiara stood with her back turned to them.

"I can hear you, ya know..", she remarked in a threatening voice as she shot Kazu a glare, forcing him to cower behind Ryoshi.

Just then, there were a few panicking yelps that echoed out from behind them and they turned to see a teenaged girl , who had been hanging from the ceiling by a water whip ,loose her balance and plummet back down and before anyone knew what was happening, the girl had hit the floor ,painfully landing on her feet and yelped out in pain immediately, gripping her ankle.

Kiara and the others all rushed to the center of the hall where the accident had happened ,joining the small crowd that stood around the girl who lay on the floor, clutching her foot.

Kazu could hear many silent whispers around the crowd and many of the girls had shocked and confused expressions on their faces.

"What happened!?", Suma's voice could be heard and a second later, the water dance teacher had reached the center of the crowd and she crouched down to the girl's side with a concerned expression on her face.

"There was an accident.. Mai-Ling slipped out of formation and she fell.", one of the dancer girls remarked quickly.

Suma looked around the group with a concerned expression as they all watched. She then turned back to the injured girl on the floor .

"Okay. Mai-ling. I'm going to try and see if I can detect the focal point of your pain.", Suma remarked and she drew up a blob of water from her water skin . As the middle aged waterbender moved the water onto her palms, cloaking them, the liquid began to glow in a eerie , iridescent fashion.

As Suma moved her hands and lightly touched the ankle of Mai-ling, the dancer immediately yelped in pain and drew back from the dance teacher with a reproachful expression.

"This seems worse than I thought. Come on. Let's get you to the nearest hospital. The healers there should be able to work better with you than I can.", Suma remarked as she stood up and clapped twice.

"Okay everyone. Good practice. We'll pick it up tomorrow. ", she remarked as three girls huddled over and lifted the injured girl up off her feet and helped her towards the dressing rooms.

"Well… that happened…", Kazu muttered awkwardly under his breath.

"That was Mai-ling. She's the lead dancer for our performance. ", Kiara remarked quietly.

"So you're _her_ understudy?", Ryoshi nodded a little apprehensively.

"From what I saw, ", Kazu remarked,"She's a really good waterbender _and_ a good dancer.".

"Thanks for the vote of confidence.", Kiara remarked rather unenthusiastically.

"Kiara!", they heard a woman's voice call out.

Just then, the group turned to see Suma skate over to them with a slightly down trodden expression.

"We don't know the seriousness of Mai-ling's injury and we hope she's alright . But until then, Kiara, you're going to take over as the lead performer for our performance. ", Suma remarked as she flashed Kiara a pointed look.

Kiara's jaw hug open and she bit her lip nervously.

"M-me!? But.. Miss Suma.. I.. uh.. Can't!", Kiara stammered, trying to come up with an excuse.

"And why is that?", Suma shot her a questioning look. "You are her understudy, Kiara. It's your role to take over in case the main performer is unavailable."

"Yeah.. But.. I didn't think something was actually gonna happen to Mai-ling. ", Kiara remarked, trying to cajole her instructor to choose someone else.

"So you're saying that you only picked to be Mai-ling's understudy because you didn't _want_ to perform?",Suma asked with a confused expression. Kiara's eyes widened and she pursed her lips as she tried to work something up. The other three with her merely exchanged silent glances with each other.

"I..Uh.. No. That's not what I meant.", Kiara stuttered.

"Never matter. You volunteered on your own accord. I expect you back here tomorrow morning early so that I can give you a crash course on our routine. You've been practicing with us already so it shouldn't be that hard for you to pick up a few extra steps. ", Suma remarked with a determined expression before she turned to the others and flashed them a friendly smile.

"It was nice meeting all of you. Please do come and support our performance day after tomorrow!", she waved before she skid away, leaving Kiara with a dumbfounded expression. She was left speechless. This was not how she had thought her day would pan out.

"What's wrong with her?", Ryoshi whispered to Kazu, who merely shrugged.

"Maybe she's just shaken up from the accident or something.", Kazu muttered vaguely.

* * *

A woman wearing a maroon hooded cloak stood a few dozen feet away, watching as the four airbenders hand out supplies to the jovial village people of Quan-Lao. Two metalbending bandits were being apprehended by the village officers, to be thrown in with the other prisoners who had been captured. More and more of them had been caught as the patrols of the airbenders had increased.

Ever since the police officers had seen her jump into the river, they thought her dead. She had been lying low in order to keep her cover with all her skill, Ta-lin was not foolish to take on an entire air nation temple by herself. She would need help. And the roving bandits would prove to be useful allies if necessary.

Ta-lin drew her hood up and turned away silently.

* * *

Kazu, Ryoshi, Kiara and the lotus sentry,Senna, were now heading to the maglev train station to head back to the air temple. They all just had had their lunch and Kazu let out a loud burp, earning him a disgusted glance from Senna.

"You know, with you being the avatar, you could at least try and act a little courteous. ", Ryoshi whispered to him as he shrugged.

"Sorry. I'm stuffed! I think maybe that pea-tendril sandwich was too gassy for my digestive system.", Kazu remarked as he rubbed his stomach with an uneasy expression.

The group had now come to the platform where the silvery metallic compartment of the maglev train stood, passengers entering and exiting it.

"Here are your tickets.", Ryoshi remarked, handing the three with him yellow pieces of card that were smaller than a palm. "I'll catch up with you guys later. I've got a friend in the city that I've gotta visit. I've been putting off meeting with him for a while now.".

Kazu and Kiara nodded and boarded the train with Senna following them through. Once Kazu had found his seat, he glanced through the glass window to see Ryoshi walking back up the stairs and out of sight.

"Wonder where he's going?", Kazu asked as Kiara sat down opposite him, laying her bag down on the floor next to her. She merely shrugged .

Kazu blinked, got up and looked around from his seat. Senna was nowhere to be seen.

"Um..", he remarked a little unsurely. "Didn't Senna board the train?".

"She did. She's over in compartment two. Said something about feeling slightly sick from the food we ate.", Kiara responded nonchalantly, not sparing him a glance.

"And.. Okay.", Kazu muttered, sitting back down as the train began to move slowly out of the station.

He had always wanted to ride one of these was something about watching the terrain zoom by that interested him. He was sure his sister had never gotten on one of these before. Wait till he sees the look on her face when he tells her about this.

The train car was very lightly populated, with most people returning home to their villages from Beltunsh after the work day was almost over.

"I don't get why we just couldn't get back to the air temple by flying bison. It's a lot faster than going on this thing. ", Kiara remarked in an irritated voice.

"Why?", Kazu inquired, cocking his eyebrows."I thought this was the fastest way of land transportation today.".

"It is.", Kiara answered."But this thing doesn't head directly where we want it to go. It's got a designated route and everything. And our stop is one of the last.".

"Still.I kinda think riding one of these is pretty cool.", Kazu answered as he glanced around the car with a smile.

"You're easily impressed.", Kiara snorted as she brought out a small circlet of water from her water skin and bent it into a small liquid orb that hovered just inches above her palm. Her eyes were transfixed on the circling orb of liquid, though it was clear her mind was somewhere else.

Kazu didn't say anything, simply watching her a little apprehensively. He felt like he didn't need to broach the topic, but he wanted to.

"Um..", Kazu began awkwardly,"So..back at your dance school. You got the lead part right?".

"What's your point?", Kiara huffed, giving him an unreadable expression.

"Well..I don't know if it's just me...but.. It kinda sounded like you didn't _want_ the part.", Kazu remarked.

"How do you know what I want and don't want?", Kiara snapped at him.

"I don't. I'm just telling you what I saw. It was like you wanted to back out or something. What's up with you?",Kazu asked, a little perturbed. For the time he had known her, even though they were exactly the best of friends, he had penned her as a fiery, hot-headed girl who didn't back down from a challenge. It was the complete opposite of what he had seen her do just over two hours ago.

"I don't have to explain myself to you, Avatar. Just mind your own business. Go make world peace or something. ", Kiara scoffed at him, folding her arms across her chest and glaring at him.

" Okay. I got it. I was just trying to help.", Kazu recoiled, shifting over a seat so that there were two seats between the two of them now.

"I don't need your help.I can get by on my own.", Kiara huffed as she turned to look out the window. _  
_

An irritated Kazu wanted to give her a piece of his mind but he ended up biting his words and simply hunched over, trying to ignore her.

* * *

The train driver sat in his chair at the front compartment, relaxed as the train sped forward towards it's next stop. Feeling slightly thirsty, the man got up and uncorked his bottle of water. As he chugged down the liquid, he thought he saw something odd in the distance and he picked up his binoculars, squinting his eyes to make out what it was.

There, up ahead on the tracks, were giant boulders that had be piled up to create an obstruction, blocking the train's path .

"What the flameo is that?", the man remarked, his eyes widening.

/

Kiara sat two seat away from Kazu, her hand supporting her cheek as she stared out the window a the landscape zipped her body seemed calm, her mind was anything but. She had to perform in front of hundreds of people in two days. And she was the lead. And neither was she the ideal waterbender. Everything she had learnt so far was by herself and from the academy. And everyone knew that self-taught waterbenders weren't generally the most skilled . Growing up, she'd never had an actual master.

Maybe she had been a little too harsh towards the Avatar. After all, he knew nothing about who she was. It wasn't his fault. And he was only trying to help her. But still, the bitterness was there. Her mother had left her and her brother when she was only eight. She hated the fact that she as actually feeling scared. Scared of looking like an idiot in front of many people and there was a hidden fear in her that her bending may fail her at the most important moment.

As she sat there , Kazu's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Why're we stopping?", the avatar inquired, his eyes fixed at the window and sure enough, when Kiara glanced out, the train did indeed appear to be slowing down.

As an answer, the door at the front of the train compartment slid open and a man dressed in black and white suit, probably the ticket counter, entered the car.

"We ask that you remain calm.",the employee stated as the passengers began to murmur nervously."And proceed on with your activities. We will be having a slight delay due to unforseen circumstances. However, the issue will be dealt with immediately and we should be on our way.".

He then turned and walked back out the door as Senna walked past him and towards Kazu and Kiara.

"What's happening?", Kazu inquired as the lotus sentry sat down next to them. The train had now come to a complete stop.

"There's a blockade of giant boulders on the rail path. We can't move forward until it's removed. I'm certain earthbenders did it..", Senna whispered in a low voice.

/

The train was stationary on a deserted stretch of land, with no greenery in sight. Red sandstone mountains the size of a three storeyed building stood on either side of the train tracks, with the mountain range stretching to the horizon.

Five of the train's employees were out in front of the train, gripping a hold onto the particles of the rock and bending them out of the way. These boulders were pretty sizeable and it took two men to move one safely out of the way.

One of the men stood back up straight and cracked his neck, wiping the sweat off his brow due to the labor. As he stood up, his eyes caught a shiny glint on one of the mountains . The man squinted his eyes and focused his vision. As he stood watching, he caught clear sight of six men dressed in black garb, covered all over except on their eyes, standing up .

"Who the..", the employee murmured and as an answer, four of the men shot their fists skywards, ripping out slabs of sandstone out from underneath their feet .As the men stood watching, the masked men began skidding down the mountain side, with three of them steering the rock slabs, two of them drawing out what looked distinctly like metal bracelets and one of them drawing out a water whip that encased around his forearms.

"Bandits...BANDITS!", the employee yelped in panic and alerted his peers and they all turned to see the masked bandits skidding towards them.

In a hurry, the employees began ripping out chunks of the earth and hurling them at the advancing bandits. But the masked men were a lot more skilled than the employees, who didn't stand a chance. The bandits simply skidded out of the way before leaping off their slabs and hurling them towards the employees in a fluid motion, forcing some to scatter while some got hit.

The metalbending bandits began firing out metal plates from their wrists and proceeded to hit the employees rapidly, too fast for them to react to. The waterbending bandit leapt forward and began firing out ice bullets at the two remaining employees up front and they managed to block a few but the waterbender simply maneuvered himself to the other side by creating a water wave beneath his feet. Once he got a clear shot at the two men ,he took it, hitting them with a powerful water jet, knocking them out in a puddle.

The bandits, having dispatched the little resistance with ease, looked around before advancing towards the train.

/

"We're already fifteen minutes late. What on earth is taking them so long?", Kiara groaned in an impatient manner.

"I dunno. Let's go check it out. Something feels wrong..", he suggested and leapt off his seat. He was no earthbender yet but he knew that it wouldn't take a bunch of earthbenders _this_ long to move a couple of boulders out of the way.

"How do you know?", Kiara asked as she and Senna followed him through , walking through the isle with the passenger seats on either side.

"I don't know..I just sort of have a feeling, okay?", Kazu shrugged.

"Oh? And we're just supposed to trust your _Avatar feelings_ ?", Kiara whined. Kazu grit his teeth and rounded on her. He had had enough. She clearly was a lot more irritable than usual and it wasn't because of him.

"Hey,stop taking out your frustration on me. Just shut up, would you?", Kazu yelled at her face and turned back , walking towards the compartment door.A few of the seated passengers gave the two of them disgruntled looks.

"You shut up!", Kiara snapped back in an irritable manner.

"Young lady, would you please lower your voice?" , an elderly passenger sitting in one of the isle seats asked her as they moved along .

"He started it!", Kara chided,pointing towards Kazu as Senna let out a soft disgruntled sigh. Ignoring her, Kazu walked toward the door at the end of the isle.

As Kazu's palm was inches away from the metal handle, the door slid open and an employee with slightly unkempt hair walked in with an unpleasant expression on his face.

"Please sir. Everything is under control. We should resume our journey any time now. Return to your seats and enjoy the view.", the man remarked in a slightly commanding voice that threw Kazu off. Just then, a vibration swept through the train and it began to move slowly.

Kazu stood , his eyes locked with the man. Something about him seemed odd. But he couldn't put a finger on it. Kiara's eyes ,however, were fixed on the man's name badge that was pinned on his chest.

"Hey. I don't think his name is Mai-lee.", she whispered in Kazu's ear so that only he could hear her. Kazu's eyes dropped to the man's name tag and indeed, the red badge read a name that definitely didn't sound like it belonged to a man.

Unfortunately, the man seemed to have realized that they had seen it. The gig was up.

In a spur motion,the man shot out silvery metal plates at Kazu's face, wrapping it around his eyes , blinding him.

"Hey!",Kazu yelped as he stumbled backwards, unable to see. He then felt two metal plates encasing around his ankles and before he knew it, he was swept off his feet and was sent flying backwards into a bunch of empty seats towards the back of the compartment. The man then shot two metal plates at Kiara , who was thrown off her feet but Senna managed to divert the course of the flying metal, since she was a metalbender herself. The panicking passengers began to run in earnest towards the end of the compartment and some of the younger men even began to leap out of a speeding maglev train.

As Kazu removed the metal plate from his face, groaning as he lay in the mess of chairs, he caught sight of Kiara and Senna battling the metalbender. Kazu leapt in, joining them, shooting out a fire ball from his knuckles.

The man ripped out the metal flooring beneath them and used it as a shield against Kazu's firebending. But the teenager leapt up and shot out a strong wind blast from his heels that hit the shield and sent the metalbender flying backwards off his feet due to the concussive force.

As Kazu attempted to advance on the fallen metalbender, a powerful jet of water curved out through the doorway and smacked hard into him, sending him flying backwards .

Kiara turned to see Kazu lying there, groaning in pain. She then turned back around to see five men dressed in black garb walk in. Four of them had their hands up in a distinct metalbending stance but one of them had ice gauntlets encased around his forearms . His amber eyes were fixed on Kiara's own. She grit her teeth as she stared back at him , not backing down.

Just then, the sound of panicked whimpering echoed behind them and Kazu whipped around to see that not all the passengers had escaped by jumping off the train. Most of those that remained were middle aged and older couples and families. And they all seemed to be reasonably rich. Two metalbenders stood behind the hostages, razor sharp metal plates hovering inches above their throats.

"Ladies and Gentlemen.", the waterbender bandits remarked out loud to the hostages.

"There has been a change of plans. There will be a delay in destination time. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused. We are not interested in killing or hurting any of you, if you cooperate.", he remarked coolly.

"You all must be knowing who we are and what clan we belong to. You make a single step out of line and it will result in your permanent end. You call for any police help, you'll be paying a visit to our clan leader and it would not be pleasant .", the bandit continued, ignoring Kiara, Kazu and Senna who were standing a few feet away from him , near the derelict seating.

"All we ask is that you hand us your valuables. We do our job, you do yours. And we will never seen each other again. Plain and simple.", the bandit finished.

"They're not giving you anything!", Kiara roared and leapt up, shooting out a water jet that randomly hit the bandits. But the waterbending bandit simply swerved around it . Kazu couldn't see his face, for a black cloth mask covered most of it, but his eyes were exposed and he could see a sense of irritation in them. If he didn't know any better, the bandit and Kiara seemed to know each other.

One of the bandits tried to shoot a metal plate at Kiara but Kazu managed to blast it out of the way with a spurge of flames. He then flipped around and shot out a flaming whip at the bandit from his heels ,sending the man flying backwards as smoke trailed off him. But mid action, while Kiara was distracted by another bandit, the waterbender leapt up and froze his blob of water into a block of ice , sending it shooting at Kazu, whereupon it caught him and sent him flying back and into the wall behind them. On impact, the ice casing stuck him to the wall like an icy kevlar vest,rendering him immobile and a metalbender moved in, holding up a razor sharp metal blade to his neck, stopping him form trying to escape out of his casing.

"I tried to play civil with you lot. Looks like you don't respond to reason. Let's see if aggression works better.", the waterbender growled and leapt up at Kiara , shooting out a wave of ice bullets. Senna darted forward and ripped out a portion of the metal flooring beneath their feet, using it as a shield to protect Kiara. Then, she kicked out, sending the metal hurling at the waterbender, who managed to parry it with a jet of water

"Fighting dirty, eh? My turn.", the waterbender stated and he advanced forward and grasped at thin air. For a moment, it looked like nothing was happening. Then, in a spur motion, the sweat that was trailing off of Senna's face oozed out of her skin , pulled into the waterbender's control and before the lotus sentry could react, he had hit her with a powerful water jet to the face that froze upon contact, sending her tumbling backwards, unconscious.

Kiara had a shocked look on her face as she watched this and anger gripped at every cell in her body as she rounded on the waterbender.

"ENOUGH!",Kiara roared and leapt up, attempting to strike him down with a water whip. But he was a lot faster than her and honestly, outclassed her in the skill department. He simply sidestepped her attack and before her water whip hit the wall behind him, he spun on his heel, brought the water molecules under his control and swerved around, sending it shooting straight back at Kiara, hitting her painfully in the abdomen area. She flew off her feet and fell to the floor, groaning in pain.

The bandit walked over to her, and glared down at her as an orb of water hovered above his palm.

"I guess you're not as strong as you thought.", he stated in a cold voice before he froze the water in a block and dropped it on her head, knocking her out.

"Kiara!", Kazu yelped in shock.

He had been stuck to the wall and had watched the man brutally drop an ice block on her head. He had seen these guys hurt enough people. He growled and the ice casing began to glow crimson and a second later, he burst out of it and shot a fire ball at the metalbender next to him, sending him flying back into the glass window pane with smoke trailing off his torso.

Kazu then advanced at the other bandits, shooting out fire balls but the waterbender shot a water jet at his ankle, freezing his foot to the floor and by the time he had melted the ice, the metalbenders had converged on him again, holding razor edged metal plates inches away from him, hovering mid air.

"Make a move and you have my word that it'll be your last.", one of them stated.

"I remember you. You and that girl were with the airbenders back in Quan-lao. You help the air nation ? Our leader would like to have a word with activities displease him.", the waterbender remarked coldly as Kazu glared back at him.

The bandit then turned to the others.

"Lock him and his two friends up in a different car. We're taking them to the carts. Be ready to detach the hostage car when ready.".

* * *

Kiara's senses were a bit muddled when she came to. Her vision was rather blurry and for a moment, blinding light hit her retinas, forcing her to blink in order to adjust her eyesight.

There was a slight throbbing sensation in her head accompanied by a lingering numbness and as she tried to reach up to massage it, she found herself unable to do so. It was as if there was something holding her wrists together, binding them .

Kazu noticed that Kiara had begun to slowly move and he ceased trying to weld the metal cuffs off his wrist.

"Hey! Kiara! Are you okay?", he called out , walking over to her. Kiara didn't answer immediately, sitting up groggily. She looked down at the cuffs on her wrists and then gazed around at the vacant train car that they were locked in. They seemed to be in the cargo compartment of the train,for there were a pile of upturned suitcases and brown storage boxes that seemed like they had been rummaged in.

"Wha-What happened?", she moaned in a groggy voice.

"They separated us from the other hostages. The waterbender said that they were going to take us to their clan leader. It think they recognized us from Quan-lao.", Kazu replied sitting down. "He dropped an ice block on your head." he added.

Then it all came back to her. She remembered what had happened and how they must've wound up here. And her brother had looked her directly in the eye when he dropped the chunk of ice on her head. Anger and hate began to creep through her body as she sat there.

"Wait... where's Senna?", she asked, for the white lotus sentry wasn't with them currently.

"I think she's being held by the bandits .I dunno.", Kazu shrugged.

Kiara hauled herself up and walked over glancing out through the window on the sliding door that had been locked shut by the metalbenders.

"We... we gotta get outta here.", she stated in a hesitant tone. " We can't help these people on our own. We need to go find help.".

"Wait. What? We can take em. I can take three and you take three. Besides, I can double as an airbender.",Kazu argued, standing up. Kiara rounded on him with an irritated expression.

" No. We can't. They outnumber us six-to-two . And in case you didn't notice, I couldn't even hold my own against that waterbender !" She yelled at him with a frustrated voice.

Kazu didn't react or move for a few silent seconds. He simply stood there eyeing her.

"You..know him. Don't you?", Kazu asked and he easily deduced that his guess was right from the way she reacted.

"Wha.. What makes you say that?", Kiara yelled at him with a shocked expression.

"I saw the way you looked at him. It was like you knew him.",Kazu replied. He had a rapport for knowing when people lie. It was a skill he had picked up on the streets when he used to scam people.

Kiara racked her brains, trying to come up with an excuse but the minute she looked at his face, she knew the game was up. Only someone as persistent and irritable as the Avatar would be invasive enough to pick at her private feelings. But she wasn't going to give him the full wasn't going to give him that satisfaction yet. She didn't know if Ryoshi would see her the same. So what guarantee was there that the person she got along the least with ,would understand?

"We...We knew each other. A long time ago. Before the airbenders took me in.I hadn't heard from him since.", Kiara lied. Thankfully, Kazu wasn't a truthseer and he seemed to have believed her.

"So did you know that he was a bandit?", Kazu pressed one.

"No.", she replied and this time, she was being truthful.

"Well.. At least we're on the same page on that one..", Kazu mumbled ."Okay. Hang on a sec. I'mna weld these cuffs off and then we can work out a way to get outta here ."

After about five minutes of him shooting a concentrated jet of flames at his own cuffs to melt the molecules , he had broken them off.

"Well that didn't take forever.", Kiara scoffed in a sarcastic tone as she got up to her feet.

"Hey. It's a lot harder to do it on metal than it is on rope .", Kazu defended himself as he pointed his fingers at the metal cuffs on her wrists. "Try not to move. Or it'll burn.".

After he had cut through her metal cuffs,both of them began rummaging around the cargo car to try and find a way out of the place but unfortunately, nothing of the sort existed. No trap doors or sliding compartment doors or anything. And the car cargo doors were also made of metal so Kazu couldn't just blast them out of the way with his airbending.

"Looks like the door's the only way out.", he remarked, a little disappointed.

"Too bad you're not a metalbender yet, Avatar.", Kiara responded hotly.

He ignored her snide comment and walked forward, sliding his hand over the metal of the door, his brows furrowed in thought.

"What're you doing? ",Kiara chided.

"I think I just figured out how to break the door open.", Kazu remarked . Kiara simply gave him a look of confusion.

"I've seen waterbenders freeze metal and break it open. Maybe you can try to freeze the door off it's hinges.", Kazu suggested brightly.

"I dunno. I've never actually done... that sort of waterbending before. All I can do was what I learnt myself.", Kiara remarked with a doubtful voice.

"There's no harm in trying, right? ", Kazu shrugged . He had known that the reason that Kiara didn't want to be the lead dancer in her academy was because she doubted her abilities. But what she said was also right. It was easier to learn bending if you had a teacher. And growing up in the palace grounds of the Fire nation, he had been lucky enough to have one.

"I guess... Okay.", she replied ,pursing her lips. "But.. they took my water skin. How am I gonna waterbend if I've got no water?".

"Oh.. Right..", Kazu mumbled, a little crestfallen as his idea came crashing down. As he looked around the place, his eyes caught sight of a few noodle broth barrels that sat at the end of the compartment and his heart began to rise again. Maybe it would work after all.

"I got it! See those noodle broth barrels? It's liquid ,right?", Kazu remarked as she nodded a little slowly.

"I..guess..", she remarked.

"You can try to use that liquid as a substitute for water.", Kazu finished.

"D'you really think that's possible?", she remarked a little skeptically as he proceeded to remove the lid of the barrels.

"I never say no until I try come on!",he remarked .

Kiara rolled her eyes and tried to get a hold of the hard as she tried, she just couldn't lift the liquid out of the a few strained seconds of her digging her fingers into thin air, she let go as a drop of sweat oozed down her temple.

"It's no use..I can't do it. It's not the same as water. ", Kiara groaned with a frustrated expression.

"You're doing it wrong.", Kazu stated blankly and an irritated look shot onto her face.

"Well excuse you, O master waterbender. Why don't you do it then?", she yelled at him, placing her hands on her hips.

"Stop firing up at everything I say. We need to work together if we're gonna get outta this place.", Kazu bit back."What I meant was not to bend the soup. I meant to focus on the water within the soup. Bend that out.".

"What?", Kiara simply stated with a cocked eyebrow.

"Just do it, will you? We're running out of time.", Kazu groaned. Kiara gave him a dirty glare before she furrowed her brows, closing her eyes, using all her energy to concentrate on her bending. For a few failed attempts, nothing happened. Then, she sensed the presence of the water molecules, imbued within the food syrup. Two whole felt the pull and the push, however minor, that the molecules were exerting on her.

A bead of sweat trickled down her temple as she moved her arms back and forth, pushing and pulling at the water molecules and with a flourish, she swung her arms up, above her shoulder, with her wrists bent downwards and her fingers elongated out, lightly touching each other. When she finally opened her eyes, a blue orb of water the size of a human head hovered above the two barrels.

A look of amazement and happiness crept across her face, as she tried to contain her excitement at having done it. She had never tried something like this before. Wait till she showed Ryoshi.

Kazu glanced down at the barrels to find thick, starchy wads of soup residue piled up within it. Kiara had seemingly sapped out all the water from the syrup.

"See?", he remarked as she continued to stare at the orb with a transfixed smile."You did it."

"I did it!", Kiara repeated him with an exhilarated smile on her face. It had been the first time she had actually given Kazu an genuine smile. And he could tell that it was from her sense of achievement.

Kazu and Kiara walked upto the door and he stood back as she moved her feet and arms around into a waterbending stance.

Kiara swerved her arms forward in a clockwise motion and she dispersed her orb of water, moving it into the corners of the door and sent it seeping into it's cracks and corners and soon , the door was encased in a blanket of water. Then she thrust her arms forward and stressed her open palms into claws. Instantly, the water began to crack and freeze, majority of the metal door encased within. Kiara clenched her teeth as she exerted her bending over every molecule of the water and a second later, a resounding crack echoed through the compartment. Kiara then thawed the ice and retracted it back into an orb of hovering water.

For a second, nothing happened. Then, the door creaked and seemingly fell back inwards, hitting the floor with a metallic clang.

/

"I wonder what they're going to do with us..", one of the hostages, an elderly lady with wearing batik style clothing and sporting an aubrun afro hairstyle, remarked as she glanced around the compartment. The hostages were grouped into a cluster that were being held in one of the compartments and they could see one metalbender pacing back and forth near the entrance door, guarding them.

"I heard that they like to boil their hostages in oil!", one of them frightfully whispered.

"Nobody's boiling just need to figure out how to get outta here.", Senna hissed at the others.

"Says the metalbender who can't bend out of her own cuffs.", one of them spat back at her and Senna expression grew livid. She had been trying to do just that all this time.

"Hey,pal! You wanna show me how to metalbend platinum cuffs? Be my guest!", Senna hissed at them and her remark was a bit too loud and the patrolling man picked up on the argument.

"Keep quiet or the flash of metal will be the last thing you'll ever see.", the man remarked, sliding out a razor edged metal blade from his gauntlet.

"I can't believe I got stuck doing this.", the bandit grumbled to himself.

Then, in a spur motion, the door behind him was ripped out of it's hinges and before the bandit could react, a burst of flames erupted from the doorway and struck him head on, sending him flying over the heads of the cowering hostages and he crumpled to the floor, black smoke trailing off him.

As the hostages squinted at the doorway, the two silhouettes walked in .One a boy and the other, a girl.

"Is everyone okay?", Kazu asked and the people nodded with blank expressions on their faces.

"How did you get out of your cuffs? This woman has been trying to metalbend out of her cuffs for a while now. She's useless.", one of the hostages, a cranky looking old lady remarked, pointing comically at Senna .

"For the last time, these cuffs are platinum! Not even the Beifongs can bend platinum!", Senna growled at the woman who backed away.

"I think I can try to get them off you.", Kiara offered and moved in . She moved her orb of water over Senna's wrists, blanketing the metal in water and with a flick of her wrist, she froze the metal clean off Senna's wrists.

"Thanks!",Senna remarked have her a big smile.

"So what's the plan?", she asked, turning to Kazu.

"We need to get these people outta here first. I can airbend at the connection lines that connect the train cars together and disconnect the compartment from the main train. ", Kazu remarked and the other two nodded. For once, Kiara didn't seem to argue with him.

"Everyone, we need to move from this compartment to the one behind us. It's the cargo hold and it's got all your luggage there.", Kazu remarked out loud to the hostages as Senna ripped the top of the train car open with her metalbending.

Kazu stood in the compartment as Kiara and Senna stood on top of it,Kazu helping them up from below while the other two helped them , it was just one guy left. A very reluctant looking fellow with his black hair slicked down the middle and carrying a stiff looked like a business clerk or something.

"Come on, sir. We need to move now.", Senna called out as the wind billowed over them.

"I AM NOT GOING UP THERE! IT'S SCARY!",the man whined, throwing a fit and Kazu gave him a furious glare, pursing his lips. He yanked the man toward him and before the man could throw a tantrum ,Kazu sent him flying upwards against his will. Kiara caught him with a water tentacle and then the three of them guided the hostages over and down to the other compartment.

/

Kazu took in a deep breath, focused his mind and shot a concentrated air blast at the bolts of the tractile that connected the cargo compartment with the rest of the train and instantly, the metal bent out of shape and the three of them watched as the car containing the passengers disconnected from the train, slowing down as the main train continued to move on forward.

/

One of the metalbenders had noticed that one of the train cars seemed to have split off from the main train line and he alerted his comrades, all of whom stood in the driver's compartment, with two of them holding the driver hostage and forcing him to drive the train along as two more of them stood upfront, at the hull of the train, metalbending and manipulating the metal track , diverting the train's course away and towards the spirit wilds,towards their hideout.

"Gun, Lao, stay here and keep watch over the driver. We'll go and see what's the issue.", the watebender remarked and he , along with one other metalbender exited the driver's compartment through the back door to check up on the hostages.

/

"So..now what?", Kiara stated as they stood ontop of the train car.

"We get the Avatar back to the air temple. ", Senna remarked and grabbed at Kazu's arm before he yanked away from her grasp.

"I can take care of myself! I don't need baby sitters watching over me all the time!", Kazu argued. Senna opened her mouth to speak up again but this time, she was cut off by a concussive blasting noise that echoed away and they spun to see Kiara standing in front of them, panting with a furious expression on her face .It appeared like she had just shielded the two of them from a sneak attack. In front of her stood the masked waterbender and one of the other metalbending bandits. However,her eyes were transfixed on the waterbending bandit. Her brother.

"I underestimated you three.",the bandit hissed as he realized that the disconnected train car was the one that was housing the hostages and the stolen cargo.

"Your mistake.", Kiara hissed at him.

The waterbender glared at her with his amber eyes that looked similar to her own. He drew out water from his waterskin and formed a water cymbal that circulated around him like two diagonal rings of water.

"It won't happen again.", he warned and he thrust his arm forward and as he did so, the water shot out from his cymbal , freezing into an ice fractal, forcing the three of them to disperse to avoid the razor edge as it shot past them.

Kazu flipped backwards to avoid the water spear from impaling him. Mid jump, he punched out a fire ball from his fist at the waterbender,which he parried with a water shied. The bandit then froze the water and sent the froze slab of ice hurling at Kazu, only for it to be brought under Kiara's control as she sprang in front of it, and she sent the slab hurling back at the waterbender, who hadn't been expecting it and was forced to shatter it to crumbs with his ice gauntlet.

"Is that all ya got?", Kazu called out, taunting the waterbender.

The bandit didn't respond but rather, let his actions speak for him. He drew up a wall of water in front of him and then began punching out in rapid motion, shooting out ice bullets at them. His hands were moving so fast that they were almost a blur. Senna was forced to rip out a slab of the metal below the feet, holding it in front of them, acting as a shield against the onslaught.

"You had to ask?!", Kiara yelled at him with an irritated expression. Kazu shrugged apologetically.

Just then, on the next train car, the ceiling trapdoor opened out and four more of the bandits trailed out , catching sight of the elemental battle that was taking place on the next car.

"Take the other two!The waterbender's mine!", the waterbending bandit yelled at them and they leapt forward, shooting out metal blades at Kazu and Senna as Kiara was left to battle the waterbender on her own.

Kazu instinctively parried the metal blades with a wind swipe, diverting them off target and impaling them into the metal that they were standing on. He then shot out a fire stream at two of the metalbenders who were attacking him, forcing them to sweep out under the flames to avoid being scorched.

"Let's see how good you really are, sister.", the waterbending bandit hissed before he drew out water out of the very air around them, forming a sizable looking cymbal of water that circulated around his arm. He then swung his arms forward, dispersing the formation and sending it shooting towards Kiara, who bolted forwards and cut straight through the water with an ice fractal of her own making. Once clear, she sent the ice hurling at him but he dispersed it into dust.

He then waved his arms around in a clockwise motion and the water reappeared, forming a wall of water that circulated around them, isolating the two of them from the others.

"You were foolish to think you could take me on.", the waterbender sneered at her as he slowly reduced the size of the water wall that circulated around them,forcing Kiara to edge forward toward him, where her motion would be restricted.

"No!", she roared and swept her arms horizontally and sent the torrent of water rocketing off course, striking one of Kazu's metalbending opponents by mistake.

"Thanks!", Kazu yelled out but his remarked went unnoticed by Kiara, whose eyes were fixated on the figure of her bandit brother.

The waterbender shot a jet of water at her, forcing her to summersault backwards before she drew out water from her waterskin and formed an ice gauntlet as she sprinted towards him. But her brother merely drew up a wave of water over seven feet tall and froze it in place, blocking her path to him. But she clenched her teeth and increased her speed, running up the slanted elevation of the frozen structure and dropped down the other side.

The waterbender evaporated the water and shot out a blast of steam current at her, almost sending her flying off the edge of the speeding train , if it weren't for her sticking her ice gauntlet into the metal of the train , using it to anchor herself in place.

Kazu was now hanging upside down by the two metal plates that the bandit had managed to wrap around his ankles. Hanging upside down, Kazu punched out fireballs at his opponent , forcing him to lose concentration on his metal plates and this was enough for Kazu to escape out of the plates, freeing his legs. He then lurched out, kicking out a fire whip from his heels,knocking the man out from under his feet. In a spur motion, as the man was mid air, Kazu rounded and landed a solid fire punch on the man's abdomen with the base of his folded palm, sending him crashing to the floor in pain.

Just then, one of the bandits fighting Senna broke off from the fight and began fighting Kazu instead.

"Oh come on! You're cheating!", Kazu groaned as he ducked under a razor edged plate that whizzed over his head.

The waterbending bandit shot a wave of water toward Kiara but she merely froze her feet in place and swung her arms around in a circular motion, evaporating the water into thin air.

"Stop!", Kiara yelled at him.

She then bolted towards her brother,a look of determination and anger etched on her face. Her brother merely began firing ice bullets at her, which she managed to dodge, marginally, before she was almost a feet away from him. Her anger took control of her and she began trying to punch him physically, but he simply ducked out of the way before he struck her with a water jet, catching her head on, sending her flying backwards and into a heap a few feet away.

Kiara panted as she glared up at him. Her hair was now wet and out of place due to the added effect of the wind billowing over them as they battled on a moving train.

"Give up. You're no match ,Kiara.", he taunted her.

"Shut up!", she barked at him before she lifted her arms above her shoulder, her wrists bent downwards. As she did so, she drew up a rectangular stack of ice that stuck out upto hip level on top of the metal flooring. She then glared at her brother as she began firing ice slabs at him, forcing him to maneuver around, ducking the razor edges.

"You've been training, Kiara. But you've still got a long way to go.", he taunted her

Kiara clenched her teeth and growled at him before she shot out an ice slab at him and this time, it nearly cut his face, for it managed to catch the black cloth wrapped around it and ripped it off, exposing his face. His gaunt expression stared at her and his black, prominently outlined eyes glared at her.

Kazu was shooting out fire balls at his opponent, who was managing to parry or duck under his attacks. When Kazu found a higher footing, the bandit simply stomped his feet on the train ceiling and while Kazu was mid action shooting out flames, he would find himself being spun around and he looked down to see that the bandit had rotated the metal that he was standing on. This left his back exposed and the bandit took advantage, leaping up and landing a solid kick on his back area, sending him tumbling forwards.

Kazu grit his teeth . He had so far not used any evident airbending but his frustration was growing and his rational brain was dimming. In a spur motion, he kicked out a fire whip from his heel, forcing the bandit to parry it with a metal shield . But before the bandit could react again, Kazu spun on his heel and leapt up, kicked out a wind blast from his feet in union, catching the man straight on and sent him flying off the side of the train. Kazu , slightly horrified at the thought that he might have sent the man to his death, scurried to the side to see the man landing in the waters of an eerie looking lake that they were passing over. The avatar sat back up with a relieved expression.

Kiara's brother sneered up at her before he focused on the ice stack she had created and brought it under his control. He then shot it up , striking her on the chin, sending her tumbling back.

"Enough of playing games with you, little sister.", the bandit hissed and as she watched, he swung his arms forward and thrust them up.

Instantly, the waters of the lake that the train was passing over rose up in the fraction of a second and before she could react, he sent the torrent of water towards her and struck her head on. As the water crashed into her, he froze it into a stack of ice and locked her in place, only her head visible above the ice while the rest of her body was encased in the circular stack , rendering her immobile and unable to bend.

Kiara tried to wriggle out of his prison without any success.

"If it's any consolation, you've improved a lot since our last fight.", her brother leered as he walked in towards her, forming an ice gauntlet over his right forearm.

Kiara glared at him from her ice prison, her body frozen from neck down.

Kazu flipped around, shooting out a torrent of fire at his opponent and in the concussive force, the bandit knocked into the one fighting Senna and both of them tumbled backwards.

Senna attempted to send a metal plate at them but they parried it and flipped backwards, onto the train car behind them. Once finding a firm footing, the two bandits ripped up the metal of the train ceiling that Kazu and Senna were standing on and began peeling the metal backwards, forcing the avatar and the lotus sentry to shift back until they were cornered with their backs to Kiara, who was seemingly frozen shoulders down in a block of ice.

"End of the line.", Kiara's brother hissed at them.

Kazu's eyes darted around, trying to rack his brains for a way out and his eyes froze on the sight of the massive looking lake that surrounded them. There was nothing to be seen in the giant lake except for piles of mossy rocks that heaped up, poking out of the watery depths. As he stared a the greenish waters ,standing on top of a moving maglev train, an idea struck him and he turned around, shooting a fire stream at the waterbender,hitting him head on and sent him tumbling backwards.

As the waterbender shook his head and got to his feet, he managed to catch sight of the three of them(Senna had broken Kiara out of her Ice prison) as they were plummeting back into the watery depths of the lake. Then, as the train rounded a bend, the bandits lost sight of the lake which vanished behind the thickets of the spirit wilds surrounding the water body.

A few seconds later, the trio resurfaced , floating up on a thick, circular slab of ice of Kiara's doing. Upon resurfacing, Kiara waterbent them towards the shoreline and the three of them scrambled to the edge and began coughing up the water that they had swallowed . Their clothes were all but drenched and their hair was plastered to their faces.

As soon as they had their feet over land again, Kiara turned to see the metallic train track gleaming in the sunlight. The train was long gone.

"He got away. Again .", Kiara panted, a little disappointed.

"If I may, I think you were pretty good today. Both of you. Made my job easier.", Senna stated with a thankful smile as she dried out her hair. Kazu nodded to her as he began using his chi to warm up his body. It was a technique only a firebender could use. As he sat there on the grassy bank, Kiara walked over to him and paused, simply staring at him. He merely gave her a suspicious expression, his footing ready to jump back in case she was going to start yelling and bickering again.

"Thank you.. For helping me back there. ",Kiara stated with a smile. "Maybe I can try and be less abrasive from now on.".She held out her hand.

There was no trace of the irritable and hot-headed girl he had come to know these past few months. So maybe it was true when his sister said that there are two sides to every person .

Kazu nodded as he took her hand and shook it.

/

The dance auditorium was quiet as they watched the performance. The place was sold out and every one in the audience watched as the dancers performed on the stage that was located in the middle of the auditorium. The stage was elevated slightly and there was a pool of water surrounding it, almost five feet below the podium. The audience seats surrounded the stage much like the arrangement in a probending area.

Kazu, Ryoshi and Kenji were in attendance at the water works dance performance and they watched with amazed expressions as Kiara and the other dancers performed on stage, gracefully moving and controlling the water in ways they hadn't seen before. The water seemed to change color when hit with a light beam, turning into shades of green, purple, yellow and beige in a fluid motion. It looked beautiful indeed. And then , at the end of the performance, Kiara and another girl dancer waterbent themselves(by drawing up ice ramps ) to the top of the ten foot tall water cymbal that was being controlled by the other dancers standing in a flower-like formation at the bottom .

Once at the top, Kiara and the other dancer raised their legs out straight , turned to each other and intertwined their feet before drawing up orbs of water that revolved around the entire formation mirroring the planetary system of the sun. As they finished, the auditorium burst into applause and the whole group gracefully disembarked from their formation before grasping each other's hands and bowing to the spectators.

Before Kiara headed back behind the sky blue curtains, she gave an enthusiastic wave to Ryoshi, Kazu and Kenji. Especially the avatar, who had given her the confidence that enabled her to do this. Maybe there really were two sides to a person . She felt a sense of achievement as she trodded backstage with the other dancers.

* * *

The waterbender and two other metalbenders stood in front of the leader of the bandit clan, a skilled metalbender named Raman. The bandits had just been thrawted by yet another group of airbenders and had returned empty handed from a village raid. The air nation was proving to be a constant thorn at their side and what made it extra difficult was the fact that they had no idea where the airbender's temple was did, unless you were an airbender if you were one of the world leaders.

They were standing in the main hall of the underground fortress that the bandit clan currently resided in, away from the qualms of of the walls were emerald made, with a greenish glow that resonated around the place. It was made up of a labyrinth of neatly carved domes, spiraling stone staircases , practice grounds and resting basically looked like an underground palace, if one were to describe it.

Raman stood before them, eyeing the three of them with scorn . He wore metallic bracelets and ankle rings and his body was littered with tattoos. His hair had grown long past his shoulders, almost at his waist level. He sported a chinstrap beard the accentuated his gaunt face, highlighting his bold jawline. He wore a sleeveless green tunic over his scarred and muscly figure.

"So which of our brothers did we lose this time, Karan?", Raman asked with a raspy voice.

"Sita.. And Gai.", Karan responded . Raman clicked his tongue, shaking his head.

"Such skilled metalbenders. Their capture will be avenged. ", Raman growled."These..airbenders are proving to be quite the adversary.".

Karan looked at the other two bandits with him and they nodded, egging him on.

"That's.. not all. We.. came across a woman . She's an airbender but not like the others... She says she's a rogue.", Karan spoke quickly, not wanting the hot tempered Raman to lash out at him .

"She says she has a proposal that may interest us. But she refused to disclose her offer to us. She wishes to speak directly with you.", he finished.

"Let her in. I'll see what she has to say.",Raman responded after a prolonged moment of silent pacing.

One of the bandits exited the hall and after a few seconds, he returned with the airbender in tow, her hands bound behind her with metal cuffs. With the approval of Raman, the bandit unlocked the cuffs and freed the woman's hands before he , Karan and the other bandit exited the hall, giving Raman and the airbender woman the privacy to talk.

"If you are an air nation spy, believe me, I know a thousand ways to end your life.", Raman hissed at her as she drew nearer.

"That won't be necessary.", Ta-lin responded without even flinching. Raman snorted arrogantly.

"What do they call you?", Raman asked with hesitation lurking in his eyes.

"My name is of no consequence to you. But my offer, will benefit the both of us. Me and your bandit clan, to be more precise.", Ta-lin responded. After a few silent seconds of them staring at each other, sizing themselves up, Raman gave her a curt nod.

"I have been staying at one of the villages long enough to know that the airbenders are a constant thorn to your side. If you help me get what I want, in turn, I will help you.", Ta-lin remarked. When Raman didn't respond, she continued.

"I know where the western Air temple is located _and_ how to get there. ", Ta-lin added.

For a few silent seconds, Raman didn't respond, simply pacing back and forth restlessly. He didn't like the idea of them working with an outsider. But his options were limited. If this lady was who she said she was, she could prove to be useful and once her use was over and done with, they could dispose of her.

"What is it that you need?", Raman responded.

A ghost of a manic smirk crept across Ta-lin's face.

* * *

 **That's all for this chapter folks!**

 **Any suggestions and constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks for reading!**

 **Until next time, Avatar,Yip-Yip!**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Avatar and the Airbender

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 **Legend Of Korra and all other 'Avatar' related Material are owned by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko**

 **BOOK ONE : ACCEPTANCE**

Chapter Seven - The Avatar and the Airbender

* * *

 _Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring peace and balance to the world._

* * *

Kazu furrowed his eyebrows as his amber eyes concentrated on the figure of Kenji who stood twelve feet away from him. Both of them were standing in airbending stances, their feet lightly skimming the floor as they moved around the sparring ring in gradual circles. It had been over five months since Kazu first began airbending and he was now ready to have his first official sparring session.

The wind howled calmly around them as the two of them focused on each other, not making any brash movements. Most of the other airbenders had gathered around to watch the sparring session, with Shenji even beginning a betting competition, unbeknownst to the elders. Temujin was also in attendance,standing a few feet away from the sparring ring, stroking his pointy chin beard, overseeing the duel. Kenji wore an easily distinguishable smirk on his face as he looked at his sparring partner.

Then, with a flourish, the airbender spun on his heel and sliced his palm horizontally through the air, shooting out an air whip that advanced towards Kazu .In response, the teenaged Avatar swirled his arms around and shifted his footing, allowing the air current to pass directly over him as he bent over backwards. Straightening back up, Kazu punched out twice in front of him with each fist, shooting out strong air blasts that accelerated towards Kenji, who had to summersault over sideways to avoid it.

But Kazu wasn't one to give his opponent any breathing space. It was a firebender instinct. He lurched forward and spun on his heel, kicking out a wind swipe from his free leg, aimed at Kenji.

Just then, he heard Temujin call out his name and he instantly shifted his focus.

"Kazuhiko.", the bald air master remarked in a collected voice.

"Yeah?", Kazu responded and he instantly left himself vulnerable to Kenji, who leapt up before bringing the air current under his control and redirected it back towards Kazu, who stood unprepared for such an attack, and was left to throw his arms up in protection as he took the full blast of the wind attack.

Flying off his feet and landing on his back a few feet away, Kazu groaned as he looked up at Kenji with an irritated expression. His roommate grinned down at him, bobbing and weaving on his feet.

"That wasn't fair!You distracted me!", Kazu complained, throwing his arms up in frustration as he looked towards Temujin, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"Focus on what you're doing. There are many distractions in the world. Learn to block them out.", Temujin answered in a cool voice .

"But.. But he used my own attack against me! I don't know how to counter that!", Kazu pressed his point,only to have Temujin give him a blank expression. Kenji , however, was feeling a different set of emotions at the moment.

"I can't believe I get to spar with the Avatar!", Kenji remarked in an exhilarated manner as Kazu got to his feet.

"I _'_ ve got a name besides ' _the avatar',_ ya know?", Kazu called back as he summersaulted onto his hands, planting his palms firmly on the ground before he swung his legs forward as one unit, shooting out a wind blast from his heels before flipping back upright.

Kenji flipped sideways over the wind blast and shot a powerful air current from his palm that rocketed towards Kazu, and he narrowly managed to avoid it. But once he thought he was clear, he found himself right in the crossfire of another attack from Kenji and before Kazu could react, the air current caught him and sent him spinning backwards in a horizontal manner before he landed painfully on his back.

"ooh. That's gotta hurt.", Kiara remarked with a slightly amused expression as she and Ryoshi stood among the crowd of onlookers, watching the airbending match.

As Kazu opened his eyes, groaning, he found Temujin giving him a blank expression as the bald air master looked down at him.

"Tell me what you did wrong.", Temujin spoke as Kazu got to his feet, rubbing the small of his back.

"Well..I dunno. I guess I was just thinking that he was gonna-", Kazu began trying explain his thoughts before Temujin rudely cut across him again.

"Exactly! You were _thinking_! You need to focus and feel the _energy_ behind the air, not just the physical breeze itself. And stop trying to fight him like a firebender. Go again!", Temujin scolded Kazu as he ushered him back into the ring.

Kenji sent an air funnel in Kazu's direction and the strong wind currents seemingly spun the avatar off his feet, sending him plummeting back to the ground . But Kazu managed to shoot out a wind blast from his knuckles, aimed at the ground, cushioning his fall. He rolled forward and glared up at Kenji, who gave Kazu a sly wink, bobbing on his toes.

"Come on, Avatar. Show me whatcha got.", he stated coolly, beckoning Kazu to make the move. Kazu responded by punching out an air blast in frustration, which Kenji managed to weave around.

The airbender then shot out two air whips at Kazu,which the avatar deftly dodged before leaping up and shooting out an air punch at Kenji and as the airbender ducked downwards as predicted, Kazu lurched forward, bent low on his knees and swept his outstretched leg over the floor, drawing a semi circle as he kicked out an air whip from his heel and the wind currents caught Kenji off guard and blasted him off his feet.

Thinking he had won the sparring session, Kazu punched the air victoriously .

"Woohoo! Looks like there's a new airbending champion!", the avatar proclaimed proudly . But his joy was short-lived as Kenji leapt up to his feet and sent an air swipe at Kazu, that caught the unsuspecting teenager head on and sent him flying off his feet and over the edge of the ring.

As Kazu lay there groaning, Temujin walked up to Kazu and pursed his lips .

"I see I was wrong. You still have a long way to go in terms of your skill and concepts. One of your major flaws is that your fight more like a firebender and less like an airbender .", the bald air master remarked as Kazu got to his feet, rubbing the side of his head.

"What the heck was that?" Kazu chided, throwing his arms up," I beat Kenji and he just straight up blasted me out of the ring. ".

" I don't think you understood the rules, Kazu. ", Ryoshi's voice spoke up and they turned to see him and Kiara walking up to their side as the onlooking crowd began to disperse.

"You have to force your opponent over the ring boundary. That's when you win . Your defeat today had nothing to do with Kenji tricking you. It was your lack of attention that betrayed you in the course of your duel.", Temujin reprimanded him as he rolled his eyes ever so subtly.

"Airbending is not about superior strength and physicality. The mobility and skill of the user is what determines their victory. ", Temujin clarified.

"He mean ducking and running?", Kiara whispered pompously to which Ryoshi flashed her a warning glare. Thankfully, Temujin didn't appear to have heard her snide remark.

"We will continue your training later. It's almost dinner time. ", he added before he turned and left the three of them alone, with Kazu trying to press his point to Ryoshi and Kiara that he technically beat Kenji.

* * *

Half an hour later, the three of them were seated along with some of Kazu's dormmates on one of the long wooden tables that were laid out in the slightly crowded dining hall of the temple.

Today was one of the birthdays of one of the most celebrated air masters to have ever lived,Guru Tilak. Although the man himself lived almost eight-thousand years ago, his birthday was celebrated to this day among those of the air nation.

The air acolyte dining hall was filled today with many of the airbenders feasting on the kale seaweed wraps and the ginger infused aloe meals that sat on steaming plates in front of them. Temujin and the other air masters sat on the most ornately decorated dining table in the hall, complete with intricate carvings etched into it. The piece of furniture was placed on a podium that stood two feet above the floor and it was placed in a way so that the people dining on it was facing the hall at large.

Temujin sat in the middle of the table and for the most part of the feast,he was conversing with an unfamiliar man wearing a blue cloak that was buttoned upto his throat , draping over his shoulders, down to the floor . He had a gaunt expression on his face as he chatted with the air master and his long hair was braided into circlets that helped keep the tresses neatly . He was easily recognizable as of water tribe decent and the man and Temujin seemed to be have a serious discussion about something.

"Who's that guy supposed to be?", Kazu inquired to Ryoshi, finally giving in to the curiosity that was bugging his mind.

"Who?", Ryoshi remarked, evidently caught up in stuffing his mouth with the kale wraps.

"That guy sitting next to Temujin.", Kazu repeated, nodding towards the man in discussion.

"Oh.", Ryoshi remarked, swallowing the food in his mouth. "That's Minister Kuon of the southern water tribe. He tends to come here from time to time. He must be here to set up a meeting between Temujin and the chief of the Southern tribe. ".

"He kinda looks weird with his ponytails, don't ya think?", Kiara chuckled and Kazu shrugged with a grin as he proceeded to munch on his food .

After a few more minutes of feasting, Temujin stood up and sent a calm, yet assertive gust of collected winds through the room, over the wind chimes that hung from the ceiling and the hall instantly dimmed in noise upon hearing the sound of the wind chimes blowing .Kazu was one of the last ones to quiet done, controlling his laughter at a joke Kenji had just said.

Temujin took in a deep breath before smiling down at the entire hall.

"We are greatful for this delicious food, for our happiness ,for our passion and for our loved ones.", the air master stated in prayer as the others watched intently from their seats.

"Another wonderful day has come and gone and no harm has befallen us. For this, we are thankful. ", he continued ."The air masters and I will be attending the initiation ceremony of the new matriarch of the metal clan in Zaofu and we will be gone for a few days. ".

A soft murmuring hissed through the hall as the airbenders and acolytes began exchanging thoughts on the new matriarch, whoever she was. Kazu wondered if Bolin still lived in Zaofu. Kazu hadn't officially met old man, who was the only lavabender in the world, but he had heard that he was probably a lot less grumpier than his older brother, whom Kazu had the misfortune of meeting.

"No one is to disobey protocol until I return, we are not yet fully certain that the threat posed by Ta-lin has truly vanished.", Temujin was saying before one of the air masters hurried over and whispered something indiscreetly before taking his seat again.

" As master Naan has just reminded me, the fourth orfice of the temple pagoda is still forbidden for the acolytes. Anyone caught tresspassing will have to answer to me.",Temujin finished his speech before sitting back down, amid curious whispers that rang out through the hall.

"What's on the fourth orfice?", Kiara piped up, a little curious.

"Maybe a three headed air bison?", Kazu suggested sarcastically before she gave him a bland face.

"Whatever it is, I don't think anyone should try going there. And I mean _anyone._ ", he remarked, eyeballing Kiara as he spoke the last word. She simply smirked at him before the lower half of her face vanished behind her cup as she drank the leafy juice.

* * *

Kazu watched from the docking platform as the Temujin and a handful of the other air masters departed for Zaofu in the airship that the minister Kuon had arrived in. The airship was clearly of Varrick industries construct,with the giant logo of the tech corporation etched out over the ship's body.

"Lock the bay doors.", one of the lotus sentries near them spoke into his hand-held radio device as the crowd began to disperse and head inside.

/

Peaceful snores filled the dormitory rooms of the pagodas as Kazu rolled around for the sixth time, sticking his fingers into his ears as he tried to catch some sleep. Kenji and Shenji had their mouth's wide open and the latter had a bubble inflating and deflating from his left nostril as he snored to his heart's content. If there was one thing Kazu had definitely learnt during his stay here, was the fact that airbenders were extremely loud snorers.

The two airbenders had been caught by Ryoshi , who found them sneaking to the place Temujin had forbidden entry to. Speaking of which, even Kazu's curiosity had been poked awake , wondering about why that particular orfice had been sealed off.

Maybe it was worth an investigation. Even though Temujin had give clear instructions to them all not to do so, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right?

Looking around, he found his two roommates deep in their slumber, with Kenji cuddling his pillow in a humorous posture, with his butt jutting upwards. Slowly getting out of his bed, Kazu held his breath as he tip-toed towards the wooden sliding door of their dorm room and slipped out before leaping down towards the lowest floor of the dorm pagoda, cushioning his fall with his airbending. Making sure that nobody was awake , the avatar slipped out of the stone building, into the cold, brisk night outside.

Unseen by him, a swift shadow was following him at a distance, dogging the avatar's steps.

/

Kazu sneaked up the stone stairs to the fourth orfice and he stood in front of the fifteen foot tall stone doors. The door was intricately carved with murals and insignias relating to the hundred year war and events predating it. There was a sense of mystery about the thing and Kazu couldn't tear his eyes away from the stone. There was a writing etched across the top of the door . It was growing faint due to its age but it was still readable.

"Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free...", Kazu read the writing, his mind trying to decipher any meaning behind the confusing saying but his chain of thought was interrupted when a familiar voice spoke up behind him.

"I though I told you not to try something like this.", a male voice remarked and instantly, a jolt of shock shot up through Kazu's spine and he whipped around, throwing his arms up into a bending pose. His chest rose and fell as the silhouette moved in out of the shadows and the light from the torch that was lit up in the bracket illuminated his face. Ryoshi looked down at the avatar with disdain written on his face.

"Oh...Jeez. It's just you...", Kazu panted, bending down and resting his palms on his knees. The twenty-one year old airbender cocked an eyebrow as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Yeah.. It's me. And you shouldn't be doing this sort of stuff, Kazu.", Ryoshi remarked .

"Why not? I mean, don't you feel curious about what's behind these doors? Wait. If you're gonna give me more wisdom speeches, don't answer that. ", Kazu remarked, heading over to the door and rubbing his palm up and down, over the carvings.

"It..I mean.. Yeah..But... That's not the point! ", Ryoshi chided, shaking his head."You're the avatar ! You're supposed to set an example for others. You can't just waltz around the place, breaking rules! Has it ever crossed your mind that they're set for a reason?".

"I'm more than just ' _the Avatar'_ you know? I'm a human being just like everybody else.". Kazu remarked gave him a bewildered look.

As the airbender opened his mouth to speak, the sound of man grunting in pain came from one floor below . Kazu and Ryoshi stared at the direction from which the sound came, but nobody entered the entrance hall of the orfice.

"What was that?", Kazu asked as he felt his heartbeat increasing as they stood in the strained silence following the sudden noise.

"I'm not sure.", Ryoshi remarked, his eyes darting left and right as he search the area for any unusual movement. The orfice pagoda that they were currently standing in was the only one with almost a dozen arched windows on each of the seven floors. Therefore, they had to look in every direction to keep guard.

"Maybe it was an eagle-owl or something?", Kazu suggested but his suggestion was answered not by Ryoshi, but by the distinct sound of whirring metal and they spun east to see four metal plates , glinting in the moonlight, rocketing towards them. Ryoshi managed to swat them off course with an air swipe and onto the floor just in time.

"That...does not look good.", Kazu mumbled as he stared, wide-eyed at the metal plates that stood, impaled into the stone floor.

Just then, five figures cloaked in black garb swung into the pagoda through the windows on the floor walls, their metal cables retracting back into their gauntlets. Ryoshi and Kazu clenched their teeth and stared back at them when a sixth figure entered the room , leaping up from the floor below. A woman. She wasn't wearing full black clothing like the others and her slightly gaunt, sullen face stared back at the two of them as they looked on, confused and shocked.

"What happened to the sentries?", Kazu remarked to Ryoshi but the woman seemed to have rather keen hearing, answering Kazu's question instead of Ryoshi.

"They weren't that much of problem. I'm quite surprised that the lotus thought that those unskilled excuses of benders were capable of protecting this place. And I have to say, this place looks like a fort, compared to the last time I was here. .", the woman remarked in a coarse, raspy voice.

"You must be wondering who we are.", the woman remarked as Kazu grit his teeth.

"Please. There is no need to fight. ", Ryoshi tried but to no avail as one of the metalbender shot a cable at Kazu, who answered it with a fire blast.

"I don't care who you are. You got in. But you're not getting out!", the young Avatar proclaimed as Ryoshi lurched forward to help him, swinging his metallic gliderstaff with him, sending out an air swipe that managed to catch all the masked intruders, except the woman, who simply flipped over the attack, avoiding it completely.

" You seem to think that you are at my level, boy.",the woman remarked in a taunting tone as Ryoshi stared at her, blinking stupidly.

Before anyone could react, the woman rotated on her heel and shot out two successive air blasts at Kazu and Rysohi that rocketed towards them rapidly, catching them head on, sending them flying back off their feet and into the walls behind them.

"You have no idea who I am , do you,airbender?", the woman proclaimed as Ryoshi lay there, groaning. A weakness of airbenders was the fact that due to their nature of avoiding direct attacks, if they got hit once, they tend to take longer to recuperate than the others.

Kazu , on the other hand, was already on his feet , and roared out loud as he began shooting out fire balls at the intruders.

Outside, the herd of air bison in the stables had begun to coo restlessly , waking up some of the air acolytes. A. few of them had trudged down to the stables, trying to calm down their own respective bison.

"Sparky... Shh. Keep quiet, you'll wake everyone up..", one of the acolytes, a thirteen year old boy , yawned, patting his bison's head in a groggy manner.

"What's the matter?", Kiara remarked, as she and a couple of the other older residents joined their younger compatriots, trying to calm the bellowing bison.

"Maybe it's the hay we gave them?", a woman next to Kiara suggested. Just then, the waterbender thought she heard the distinct sound of firebending coming from somewhere in the distance.

"Did you hear that?", she mumbled to one of the others, who merely shrugged. But this time, the whooshing noise came louder and Kiara was sure she hadn't imagined that up in her sleep deprived state of mind.

Just then, they heard someone calling out to the other and they followed the voice to find one of the remaining air masters trying to wake up an unconscious lotus sentry, who lay on the ground.

"What the flameo is happening?", Kiara remarked in confusion with the others.

/

Ryoshi and Kazuhiko were busy ducking and avoiding the various metal plates that were whizzing past their heads. Kazu's rational brain had stopped working and his instinctive side had taken over, resulting in him acting more like a firebender, shooting out fierce flames and completely forgot that he could airbend as well.

As Kazu lurched forward, the airbending woman ducked under his flames before running up a wall, flipping over him and shooting a concentrated air blast towards his spinal area . Upon contact, the force of the air blast shoved Kazu forwards onto the floor and in the confusion, his head knocked hard into the stone flooring and he lay unconscious in the dim light of the torches that lit the pagoda.

"We have what we came for. ", the airbending woman yelled to the others and they instantly converged at once on Ryoshi. He tried his best to parry the many metal plates whizzing in his direction but one of the intruders ripped out a chunk of the stone floor beneath them and another of his compatriots sent the six foot long slab of granite rock flying towards Ryoshi and the airbender could not leap out of the way in time, instead getting hit painfully by the chunk and slamming into the wall behind him,unconscious.

Having secured the Avatar, Ta-lin and the other bandits exited the pagoda the way they came in, through the window.

/

Kiara stood with the small crowd of airbenders who were grouped around the unconscious lotus sentry, trying to wake him up. As she stood,she felt something nudging her around her hip area and the distinct scent of Taka filled her nostrils. She had spent the day playing with the air bison so she assumed that that was what he was prodding her for. Feeling the animal nudging her again and cooing gently, she let out a frustrated groan.

"No, Taka. Not now. It's really late. ", Kiara groaned as she lightly pushed away the Bison's head. " We can play in the morning. Just go back to-WHAT THE HECK!?",she yelped out in shock, her eyes and mouth wide open now as she spotted a group of silhouetted people bolting away from one of the pagodas, wearing black clothing that she recognized as that belonging to the bandit clan. And on the shoulders of one of them, hanging unconscious, was what looked to be Kazuhiko.

"Kiara? What-", one of the air master began before she spun to them and pointed in the direction of the escaping intruders, her face now wide awake.

"THEY'VE GOT THE AVATAR!", she yelled and bolted forward, drawing up water from the water skin of the unconscious lotus sentry. Once the others realized what the teenager was yelling about, they too burst forward, shocked and panicked expressions on their faces as they chased after the bandits.

"So much for the stealthy.", one of the bandits hissed in a disgruntled fashion to Ta-lin as she lead the group towards the east edge of the temple.

One of the metalbenders then stopped in his tracks, ripped out a slab of the stone flooring beneath him and broke the slab into smaller chunks, hurling them like bullets towards the airbenders chasing after them, forcing them to scatter and cower to avoid getting hit.

Two more helped him by joining in the attack copying him. They focused their energy on the particles of rock surrounding them , their palms outstretched in front of them, fingers grasping at the rock particles Then, they thrust their hands down and instantly, one of the arched doorways lying between them and the airbenders collapsed, injuring a few of them while others airbent themselves out of the way.

"We're getting out of here. ", Ta-lin proclaimed and focused her attention on the particles of dust and smoke that rose up into the air and then began collecting the smoke in towards her, forming a circular sphere of rapidly spinning air currents around her and the metalbenders.

Coughing from the splurge of dust and debris, Kiara looked up from behind the derelict stone debris to see the three metalbenders retreating into the sphere of smoke.

"Oh no you don't!", she roared in anger and burst forward, leaping over the debris, to the other side . She then shot the water whip on her arm forward, stretching the liquid towards the sphere and she managed to wrap the whip around the torso of one of the bandits and hauled him backwards, off his feet as the sphere of grey smoke began to circulate like a mini hurricane.

"We have to go back!", one of the bandits yelled over the howling winds.

"No! We leave him. He's a lost cause ", Ta-lin roared venomously at the bandit as she swung her arms around , creating a mini storm of dust around them.

Kiara froze the water on the bandit she had caught into a block of ice, preventing him from escaping. Then, upon looking up, the sphere of smoke disappitated into the air and the bandits were nowhere in sight. They were long gone.

* * *

"I say we deal with this Tikaani situation immediately.", minister Kuon of the southern tribe remarked, pressing his index finger on the rectangular metal table that they were all seated around. Temujin, along with a few of the other air masters, minister Kuon and two lotus members were seated in the meeting hall of the vast airship , on their way towards Zaofu. On the way, they were discussing of possible strategies to address the problem of the dictator/chief that ruled over the northern tribe, Admiral Tikaani.

"Look. We all know what must be done. I propose a preemptive strike against their forces. We take the fight to him.", Kuon continued, pressing his point as Temujin listened, stroking his beard with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I don't think making an unprovoked attack would be a right move, since the admiral hasn't done anything aggressive on international territory. ", the air master suggested in a diplomatic voice.

"Not yet. But he can't be trusted. He took over after the chief and his son were killed by Barbarians. And now he has the whole army of the northern water tribe at his command and who knows what he might do next. He has closed the tribe off from the rest of the world with blockades. Do you think a sane person would do that?", Kuon persisted.

"Well.. To be fair, he was third in line for the throne, since he was the late chief's brother. ", Temujin remarked as Kuon let out a frustrated groan.

"I don't think sitting around and waiting would be beneficial for our cause. I would like to let you all know that Chief Sitka is fully on board with my proposed plan and so is the newly elected president of Republic city. ", Kuon replied, not backing down.

Temujin let out a defeated sigh, not able to work through the aggressive point of view that the southern water tribe minister was bringing up. Just then, the silver door to the hall slid open and a lotus sentry came through.

"Master Temujin, there's an incoming SOS for you from the Western Air temple on the airship radio.", the sentry remarked, addressing Temujin directly.

"Excuse me for a moment.", the air master remarked to the others, who nodded as he got up and left the hall, following the sentry to the communications room , towards the hull of the ship.

Temujin sat down on the chair and picked up the teleradio system . "Hello?".

For a moment, he simply listened to what the person on the other end of the comms was saying and when they were finished, his face dropped in shock , his eyes and jaw were wide open.

"WHAT!?".

/

As the other dignitaries sat in the meeting hall, discussing about the situation in the northern tribe, Temujin burst into the room with a frantic and panicking expression.

"Master Temujin...what-", minister Kuon began before Temujin cut across him.

"We have to head back now! The Avatar has been kidnapped!", the air master wheezed.

* * *

There was a dull numbness that rang through Ryoshi's body as he came to. He could hear the low humming of thunder outside and the smell of earth and mud stung his nostrils as a gust of wind blew in over him . He felt somewhat , he tried to sit up but a sharp pain spread through his body, forcing him to lie back down , clutching his shoulder where the pain was most concentrated. At that moment, he thought he could hear hushed whispered from somewhere nearby and he slowly opened his eyelids, his pupils adjusting to the light that hit them.

At first, his vision was all blurry . He could make out three people walking towards him. Two in saffron robes and one in a white tanktop with blue pants on. Judging from blurry view, he seemed to be in the temple healing room.

"Are you alright?', he heard a female voice speak . "You've been out cold for almost five hours.".

As he turned to look at the source of the voice, his eyes found master Yin, a very slender figured woman in her mid forties. Her oval shaped face was accentuated by her big brown eyes that gazed down at him. Her blue air bending tattoos was briefly visible underneath her bangs that covered her forehead and she, just like the other air masters, wore a brown beaded necklace round her neck( it was supposed to help in meditation).

"What..happ-", he began mumbling as he memories of what had transpired swirled to the forefront of his brain.

"Kazuhiko!", he blurted out loud , springing off the bed before the pain forced him to sit back down.

"You should rest. They hit you bad with a pretty big chunk of rock. It's a surprise you haven't sustained any fractures.", the air master remarked kindly as she sat down next to him.

"Where is he?", the airbender continued, holding his shoulder.

"He..They got away. They took the Avatar with them.", Kiara responded quietly.

"No...", Ryoshi cursed, looking around in dismay as the sound of thunder erupted outside the temple." But how did they get in? Even with all the lotus sentries around.".

"We've informed master Temujin of the avatar's kidnapping. He's on his way back along with all the others. We've already sent out search parties to look for the Avatar. With this weather, the kidnappers couldn't have gone far.", Master Yin remarked as she handed him a glass of aloe juice.

No matter how they said it, Ryoshi felt had taken Kazu and he was unable to stop them.

"What's the matter?", master Yin inquired, seeing the young airbending master's tense slowly turned his gaze towards them.

"I..think I may know who our attacker was. It was a female airbender. ", he remarked quietly and he watched as the realization dawned on master Yin's face.

* * *

The torrential rain plummeted down to the ground, thunder crackled through the air as a bright spark of lightning lit up the skies whole.

"We wait until the storm abates. ", Ta-lin remarked as she gazed out of the cave that she and the bandits had taken refuge in. Karan was also present with the group, but he hadn't gone to the temple with them, since had had been waiting with their getaway vehicle. And he was glad, honestly, for he hadn't had to face his sister again.

The wind howled and rain poured down like bullets to the earth, the strong scent of moss and dirt filling the air as the thunder crackled through the sky, nature's force grueling down hard. The cave the group had taken refuge in was rather mossy and wet, with them driving out some of the rodents that scurried across the cave floor. A dampness filled the air as the cold winds blew in, forcing the inhabitants of the cave to clench their teeth, trying to ignore the freeze cold weather. Ta-lin, however, was not bothered by the cold. She knew how to regulate her breathing in order to keep herself warm.

A few of the other bandits were exchanging looks of disapproval and anger. She had forced them to leave behind one of their own so that they could get away with some firebender boy who had been out cold for almost five hours now. Why was he so important anyway?

They sat silently for about five drauling minutes as the wind howled noisily outside . Karan chose not to sit with the others, instead silently standing close to the mouth of the cave, hovering an orb of water inches above his open palm, watching the water swirling within.

"I can hear your irregular breathing. What do you want? Spit it out!", Ta-lin's voice came from within the cave and Karan turned to see her gaze locked onto the figure of Chin, one of their more burly metalbenders.

"We shouldn't have left Han back there!He's one of our own and you're not! Who the heck made you the boss anyway?", Chin seethed, glaring daggers at the airbender.

"I'm not stopping anyone from going back and retrieving him. He was caught because of his incompetence. He lacked the skill and the conviction to withstand that lowly waterbender. You are welcome to go back and get yourself caught.", Ta-lin hissed , giving him a cold stare, as if she was daring him to do so.

There was a strained silence that followed that taunting remark .

"Thought so. All mouth and no action.", Ta-lin jeered with a smirk. The brash metalbender couldn't hold his anger in anymore.

"BACK OFF!", Chin roared, getting up to his feet, ripping out two chinks of rock from the cave floor next to him as Ta-lin reciprocated almost immediately, moving in a spur motion and shooting a precise and powerful air blast at one of the rocks , shattering it to crumbs right from the metalbender's bending hold.

"I'm not going anywhere.", Ta-lin responded coolly, in her bending stance, eyeing him with an amused expression, as if he were a silly child throwing a tantrum.

"Make a move,and you will suffer a death more painful than your pathetic waste of a brain can imagine up. ", Ta-lin hissed at him. Chin began to shake in fury at being made to look stupid and was about to bring down the cave ceiling on the airbender before Karan sprang up in front of him, stopping him from doing anything stupid.

"Don't. She's working with Raman. You don't want to get on his bad side if you break the terms.", the waterbender remarked ."Besides, he's planning on ending her after he gets what he wants.", he added in a low voice.

For a moment, Chin didn't respond, his chest rising and falling as he breathed rapidly, his emerald eyes glaring at Ta-lin, who was giving him a threatening stare. Then, he dropped the chunk of rock on the ground with a rumble and walked towards the cave mouth, opting to sit somewhere where he didn't have to face that horrible woman .

"What the heck did I sign up for...", one of the other bandits mumbled as Ta-lin walked in the opposite direction, proceeding to sit down in a lotus position in front the unconscious Avatar as the teenager lay on the damp,mossy cave floor, his hands bound by metal cuffs. She sat there, simply staring at his face with furrowed eyebrows as the avatar lay, eyes shut, not aware of what was transpiring around him.

* * *

Kazuhiko's eyes flitted open slowly and he rubbed them roughly, let out a soft groan, as if he had been in a deep sleep. He seemed to be lying down on soft, mushy grass of some sort, for he could feel the soft prickle of the grass tickling at the back of his neck as he lay there. Slowly, he sat upright and rubbed his head, feeling slightly sluggish. As he sat there, rubbing his head, it was then that he earnestly began looking around where he was and it looked completely alien to him. He couldn't see everything yet , since there was a thick layer of fog that shrouded the landscape, obscuring anything from view. All he could see was the grassy ground he was sitting on the bright pink sky up above him. Wait. Pink sky?

"Where...Where am I?", he muttered to himself, getting to his feet.

For a few seconds, he tried walking around, feeling utterly confused, but the more he walked, the more he began to get the feeling that he was walking around in circles, not being able to see where his feet were taking him. Pursing his lips, he decided to try and airbend some of the fog out of the way,to clear his vision. Taking in a deep breath, he thrust his palm out in front of him, bending slightly at the knees. But, to his horror, nothing came. Not even a puff.

"Wait..What?', he mumbled, shocked. He then tried to shoot out a fire ball and yet again, nothing happened . He stood in a strange place doing weird hand waving motions.

"I can't bend? Why.. Why can't I bend?", he exclaimed , panicking as he tried yet again, this time a little frantically and again, nothing. What had those bandits done to him? Were they chi-blockers as well now? He had to get out of here, get back to the temple quickly. Deciding to try and call out for help, he took in a lungful of air, cupped his palms around his mouth and yelled out loud with all his strength.

"HELLO!?", he yelled that he could hear was his own voice echoing for miles and miles.

"IS ANYBODY THERE!? HEELLP!", he yelled out frantically, hoping that somebody, anybody had heard him. But no answer came.

"Monkeyfeathers...", Kazu cursed audibly, clawing at his face in disgruntlement.

Then, he thought he saw something moving in the foggy expanse.

"H-hello?", he called out, feeling slightly jumpy, since he didn't seem to have his bending for protection. As he watched, the shadow began to grow darker , more prominent and it also seemed to be getting bigger and bigger with each step taken towards him. Okay. This was one huge man.

But Kazu was in for a fright. What came through the fog was no man. It wasn't even an air bison, which would've been less dangerous. What came through was a large, adult polarbear-dog. And polar-bear dogs were definitely carnivorous. Just his luck.

At first, Kazu threw up his hands in fright and leapt back, his basic instinct taking over as he screamed out loud in fear. But then, when the animal didn't move or attempt to snap his neck with it's jaws, Kazu opened his eyes and looked up at the large animal. Something about the way he looked at Kazu seemed familiar. Kazu racked his brains, trying to figure out why the giant animal felt so familiar and then it clicked as his eyes grew wide in realization .

"N-Naga!?", he exclaimed out loud, his mouth talking before his brain ordered it to.

As an answer, the giant , white furred polarbear-dog walked forward, bent down and ran it's tongue over the Avatar's face. A wide smile spread across his face as he reached up and began petting the animal's head.

"Naga!", Kazu repeated, this time his voice a lot more calmer and happier.

"So...um..", Kazu remarked after a few prolonged seconds of petting the animal guide from his past life,"Where exactly are we?".

As an answer, the polarbear-dog simply kneeled it's front legs down and looked up at Kazu.

"You...want me to get on top of you?", Kazu remarked with a cocked eyebrow. The animal grunted as a response. Wondering what in Agni's name was going on, he clambered on top and the polarbear-dog began to gallop away into the thick foggy expanse , with Kazu sitting on the animal's back, clutching at her snowy white fur. He didn't know where Naga was taking him, but he trusted her. At least that much he was sure about.

* * *

Master Yin, minister Kuon and master Temujin were striding down the corridor to the cellary where the caught bandit was being kept. Temujin and the others had just arrived and Yin had just told him of the suspect for Kazu's kidnapping. But apparently the air master refused to believe that it was indeed Ta-lin who had taken Kazu until valid proof was there. After all, many police officers had sworn legally to her suicide.

As they entered the room,Kiara and Ryoshi came into view, already inside the room, eyeing the bandit with distaste on their faces as he sat scornfully on the floor. They had been keeping watch over him while the others arrived. They were already short on staff, since the lotus sentries had all been dispatched to search for the missing Avatar.

They could see that the bandit had his wrists and legs cuffed together with platinum restraints and his metal bracelets and other sort of weaponry had been removed, nowhere to be seen in the room. There was, however,a sturdy wooden table and two chairs placed in the middle of the room.

As master Temujin proceeded to sit down on one of the chairs, Kiara walked over and roughly hauled up the bandit off his feet and shoved him into the chair.

"Jeez. You caught me and now you wanna harass me? I thought the airbenders were a reasonable is this world coming to?", the man chided, rubbing his wrists in irritation.

"Ah, shut your yammering.", Kiara remarked coldly.

"How did you get in?!", Ryoshi chided.

"Are you plain stupid, boy? We're earthbenders. ", the bandit gave him a despising glare before stepping back and allowing Temujin to do the interrogation.

"Why did you kidnap that boy?", Master Temujin began, being cryptic and not revealing the fact that who they had kidnapped was the Avatar, on the off-chance that they didn't know. But it was highly unlikely that they didn't know who he was. Otherwise why on earth would they single him out?

"And what makes you think I'm ready to talk , baldy?", the bandit hissed venomously.

"I am not in the mood for..games! We don't want to make us do something that you don't want us to do. And I suggest you make your decision quickly before someone less patient than I decide to chat with you.", Temujin remarked with irritation etched on his face. The bandit simply eyed the airbending master scornfully before he let out a contemptuous snort.

"I've seen worse stuff than what you little airbenders can cook up. I ain't talkin. And there's nothing that you can do to make me.", he chided with a leer. Minister Kuon gave him an angry glare. The bandit was right, of course, without proper proof, being part of a ruling government, Kuon couldn't lay a finger on him without an legal clauses. Kiara, however, let out a frustrated groan and walked towards the bandit as he ,and the others in the room glanced at her with a confused look.

"What're you-Hey!", the bandit remarked in a slightly shocked voice as Kiara brought out a swirl of water from her waterskin and formed a water whip around her forearm. Using the waterbending move, she hoisted the man up by his feet, hanging him upside down .

"Talk! Or else!", Kiara roared with an aggressive expression as she brought his face to her level. For a moment, the bandit looked shocked, his eyes wide and then, that look vanished as quickly as it came.

"You won't hurt me. I know an empty threat when I see one.", he leered at her. For a few seconds, Kiara didn't budge.

"Well, I guess you're not as good as you thought, chump.", she stated coolly.

"Wait. What?", the bandit remarked and before he knew what was happening, Kiara was storming out the room, holding the man upside down by his ankles as the others paced after them, following them through the corridor outside with confused expressions. Once outside the temple inner pagodas, they found the teenaged waterbender standing near the edge of one of the protruding outer platforms that looked over the cliff side . She was holding the bandit upside down, over the misty abyss below as the adults watched with shocked expression on their faces.

"Now what you see down there is a hundred, maybe a thousand foot drop, I don't know. If my arm gets tired, I can't guarantee that I won't let go of you. And with your hands and feet cuffed, there's no way you're gonna be able to earthbend yourself to safety. ", Kiara remarked with a taunting smirk as the man gazed at her with a shocked expression.

"You wouldn't!", the bandit mumbled as he fought to keep his voice from cracking due to the sensation of fear that was gripping his body.

"Wanna find out?", Kiara smirked .

"Kiara, what are you doing!? Put him down!", Temujin chided from behind as she ignored him.

Then, before Temujin or any of the others could do anything else, Kiara dissolved the water whip , letting the man plummet down a few feet before she shot a whip after him, grabbing him in the nick of time before he vanished into the mist below.

"Had enough?", Kiara taunted as she hoisted him back upto her level. His skin had almost certainly turned pale and his eyes and mouth were wide open as she looked at her with utmost fright in his eyes.

"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! I'LL TALK!", the man yelped in fright . Kiara smartly turned to Temujin, who was eyeing her with a look of disbelief . She then moved the bandit away from the plummeting cliffside and dropped him to the ground, at their feet.

"None of you _airbenders_ could've gotten him to talk.", Kiara muttered to Ryoshi as she joined his side.

"It was some airbending woman who met up with us during one of our raids. She claimed to be a rogue airbender and she could help us get rid of you lot. In exchange, she wanted help in getting the firebender boy. Don't know why she wanted him. Wouldn't tell us. NOW THAT'S ALL I KNOW, I SWEAR! PLEASE GET HER AWAY FROM ME!", the bandit poured out as he tried to scramble away from Kiara, hugging onto Kuon's legs as he tried to shake the bandit off with a look of disgust on his face.

"I can't believe it. It's her.. She's alive...",Temujin mumbled, his eyes wide in shock and his skin pale as if his fears had been realized.

"We need to get as many search parties out there now! We cannot let her take the Avatar! Quickly!", he yelled to the others , a hint of panic in his voice.

"Yes sir!", the nearby lotus sentries remarked, bowing to him before jogging off to relay the orders to the other remaining sentries.

"Wait.. You mean.. That kid was-", the bandit remarked with an astonished expression but he was knocked out by a water smack to the face by Kiara before he could finish his sentence as the adults stormed away, ready to go out after him.

"I'll get a few of my officers to go with us. The more the help the faster we can ensure the Avatar is safe.", minister Kuon suggested as he strolled off importantly to give orders to his men abroad the airship.

* * *

Kazu sat bareback on the polarbear-dog as the animal galloped through the thick fog. Looking up, he saw that the sky overcast was still bright pink and he could see translucent spirits passively floating around .He knew he was in the spirit world right now, with the appearance of Korra's animal guide as confirmation. But he still didn't know how he had got there and why he was there either. He hadn't entered the plane through any of the spirit portals. And he had no grasp of the concept of meditation yet so he couldn't have meditated here either.

"Um.. Where exactly are you taking me?", Kazu thought out loud and the polarbear-dog simply grunted as an answer as she bolted through the fog.

"Not sure what that meant but Okay.", Kazu remarked , a little confused as they paced along .

After a few more minutes of vaguely moving through the fog at a gallop, Kazu noticed that Naga's sprint was slowing down and his guess was proved to be correct when she came to a slow trot and stopped completely at the banks of what looked like a vast, unending lake.

The lake had a sort of eerieness about it, with it's glassy water surface blanketing the unknown below it. There were no ripples of life in the lake and Kazu could see his and Naga's reflection in the glassy water, staring right back at him. The expanse of the fog around them accentuated the eerie vibe that the scenery was giving off. He knew that this was probably a realm in the spirit world but it still didn't make it any less creepy for him, to the extent that the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end.

"Um.. Ah.. Why.. Why did we stop?", he remarked down to the snow furred animal. As an answer, Naga grunted and bent her head, stretching her neck towards the watery surface, her nose inches away from their reflections. For a few seconds, Kazu couldn't decipher what the animal was trying to say to him. Then, when it finally clicked, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Wait a sec. You don't want me to.. go in there do you?", he stammered to the polarbear-dog, to which the animal simply grunted , as if saying yes.

"Awh ..Monkeyfeathers!", Kazu cursed in dismay. That was the last thing he was looking forward to doing.

"I'm not going skinny dipping in some spirity ghost lake! There ", Kazu chided as he slid off Naga's back. The polarbear-dog simply gave him a poker face before opening her mouth and sliding her large tongue over Kazu's face, giving him a reason to get in the water and wash his face.

" Alright.I'm going.", Kazu sighed in defeat as he trudged towards the water surface. "If I go , what's gonna happen?", Kazu called out but when he turned back, he found himself staring into the foggy horizon. Naga had seemingly disappeared.

"Okay.. was definitely a whole new level of creepy.", Kauz gulped, now genuinely feeling a little spooked. Had he just imagined that all up? He reached up his fingers and lightly touched his cheek. Nope. That all did happen. Naga's saliva was still there.

Kazu looked back into the watery lagoon , gazing at his rippleless reflection before taking a deep breath and slowly walking into the was a pretty gripping feeling, and his breath would strangle up in his throat with each step he took, fearing the worst.

When he broke the glassy surface, ripples of distortion waved on endlessly and he didn't know if he should do this or not. Maybe he should just go back . After all, he was only ten steps into the water. But when he turned around to head back to the banks, he found himself staring at nothing but an expanse of water for miles and miles stretching out over the horizon. There was no sign of the land that he and Naga had just arrived on. His heart began to drum frantically as he fought to keep a level head.

"What the-", he muttered to himself but he didn't have a chance to finish . Mid sentence, he felt a slight tug at his legs and then, in a swift motion, he was seemingly yanked down into the watery depths.

The icy cold waters engulfed him as he waved his arms around, trying to swim back to the water surface frantically. But it was no use. What had looked like shallow water just seconds ago had now turned into a deep water abyss with no sign of the lagoon floor, as if he had just magically been transported to the ocean. As he struggled, he felt the water pulling him further and further down into the depths of the emerald waters surrounding him.

Right in front of his eyes, the waters around him began to pick up speed and before he knew it, he was revolving down and down in an underwater tornado. He tried to claw and swim his way out of the powerful currents but there was no use. He felt his strength leaving him and the light in front of his eyes were dimming. The last thing his eyes let him see was the fact that the watery swirls were sending him rocketing towards the now visible lagoon floor and as he threw up his arms in panic, he was sent shooting straight through the clay laden floor before he vanished from view. As soon as he vanished, the aggressive watery currents began to slow down and seemingly stopped.

The waters were glassy calm and nothing moved.

/

Temujin stood on the airship , his brows furrowed as he scanned the green spirit wilds below them for any sign of the missing Avatar. He was the lone silent figure standing near the glass windows of the airship's common room. The storm had stopped now and the overcast skies stretched out over them, with the opaque clouds blocking any sunlight from making it's way towards the troposphere.

Kazu's kidnapping was his mistake. He underestimated even felt a little ashamed at hoping that she was gone.

He should've known better. She wouldn't have jumped into a rapid river if she hadn't had a way to beat it. But he chose to believe that she was gone. He chose to believe the police reports. He _knew_ how dangerous an airbender Ta-lin was and yet had had left the sixteen year old boy with a bunch of sentries who were no match for her skill. The Avatar was entrusted to him and he had failed . But this wasn't his greatest failure. Not by a mile. That position, however, still belonged to something else.

"I just spoke with master Ela from Zaofu about our attendance to the ceremony being delayed. ", minister Kuon stated as he walked upto Temujin, springing him out of his thoughts. "I will be with my officers if you need me. Might as well get some paperwork sorted out while we wait.".

As the southern water tribe minister walked away, master Yin approached Temujin as the other air masters chatted vigorously, seated at the table.

"We will find him.", she assured him, taking his hand and giving it a small squeeze.

Temujin let out soft sigh as he turned his gaze back outside to see Ryoshi and Kiara seated on Taka, flying a few paces behind another air bison on which four sentries and Kenji sat.

/

Ta-lin returned back to the cave and once her foot entered the mossy tavern, the hushed whispering going on within halted immediately as the bandits looked at her figure. She had gone out to scout for a way out of the forest and had returned.

"The storm's passed. We move now or we won't make the base before nightfall. And it'll be even more of a headache once the boy awakes. ", she ordered as she created a sphere of air currents around her, blowing herself dry of any of the lingering moisture on her. As they watched, she walked over to where the unconscious Kazu lay and picked him up over her shoulder. Then she walked out the cave without another word,with the bandits following suit.

/

Kazu felt weirdly lightheaded as he came to. He groaned as his slowly opened his eyelids. A blurry green skyline loomed over his eyes and he could see translucent spirits floating by in a passive manner. Groaning, he sat back upright and rubbed his head sluggishly . As he looked around, he found himself sitting in the middle of some sort of lush forest. But the trees looked vastly different, with their twisted trunks and elongated emerald vines that stretched out unendingly. The grass itself felt weird to the touch, not really feeling prickly neither soft. There was no scent or smell to the forest around him and there was almost a pitch silence that was slightly calming to the ear. Thankfully though, the fog was a lot less opaque than before.

Then, out of the mist, he thought he saw somebody walking towards him. And this time it wasn't any bipedal animal or anything. It certainly wasn't Naga either. Kazu's eyes widened and his jaw dropped as he stared at her as she emerged out of the mist .

"It's good to see you, Kazuhiko. ", Korra's form remarked with a genuine smile on her face.

/

Ta-lin trudged along in the mossy forest undergrowth. The scent of dirt and mud filled the air and a residual humidity lingered around the group as they moved through the spirit wilds, keeping north, heading for the bandit clan base.

"So. What's Raman's plan ?", one of the bandits whispered under his breath to Karan as they walked a few paces behind Ta-lin, who was busy concentrating on walking with the teenaged boy slung over her shoulder. She had been adamant that she didn't need help carrying him.

"He didn't tell me much but he told us to stick close .Find out where the temple is. Now shut up before she hears you!", Karan hissed back , forcing his compatriot shut as the bandit gave him a displeased glare before nodding. They and the other bandits walked after her, following her through the slushy landscape.

/

Kazu was staring at the form of the middle aged Korra with his eyes almost popping out of their sockets in disbelief. She stood before him, cloaked in a slight ethereal mist , gazing at her reincarnation . She didn't tell him this, but it felt equally surreal for her as it was for him.

She had taken the form of her thirty year old self, when she was in her prime as the Avatar. Her hair was just long enough to stretch past her shoulder blades but not as long as it was when she first arrived in Republic city. She was also wearing the blue formal dress that her parents had first given to her for attending Varrick and Zhu-li's wedding ceremony all those years ago. Unlike how she was in her younger days, she didn't sport a ponytail on her head anymore,instead letting her hair flow freely. Under her bangs, her azure blue eyes were fixed on Kazuhiko with a slightly amused glint in them.

"Avatar Korra?!", he blurted out in an ungracious manner.

Korra smiled at him as she stood before him.

"You should be thankful. You were able to connect with me at a younger age than I ever did. ", she stated calmly as he eyed her . "I sent Naga after you to bring you here because it is time you knew about what it means to be the Avatar.".

"Um...", Kazu muttered , still stunned that this was actually happening.

"The Avatar state is a defense mechanism powered by your own spirit connecting with the spirit of light, thus forming the Avatar spirit. It is designed to keep you alive in times of danger and gives you incredible power when used correctly . It channels the power and energies of all the past avatars combined with the light spirit through your body when you use it.", Korra began and as she spoke, there was a momentary pearly white glow in her eyes before they returned to their normal blues.

"In the Avatar state, you are at your most powerful ... and at your most vulnerable.", Kora stated , rendering Kazu a little confused.

"Wait. I don't think I understand. If the avatar is most powerful in the Avatar state, then how can he also be at his most vulnerable?", Kazu inquired as he walked with Korra through the damp spirit forest.

"If you are killed in the Avatar state, the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the Avatar will cease to exist.", Korra remarked . "I learnt that the hard way, Kazuhiko. I had almost lost my connection to the avatar spirit twice during my early years and I do not wish that same fate for you. ", Korra stated and he immediately noticed that she looked very disturbed as she recounted the events.

" I had always struggled with my spiritual connections because of how reckless and naive I was. I had none of my past lives for most of my life to give me guidance and I want you to know that I will always .. be here for you, to guide you should you need my help. ", Korra remarked with a stern expression. There was a determined look in her eyes as she said this. She took a short pause, letting the youngster process all the said information before continuing.

"There is a great danger threatening to throw the air nation out of balance. Her name is Ta-lin and she is one of the most powerful airbenders living today. ",Korra stated with a serious expression . And as she spoke, all of a sudden , visions of a young airbending woman with a maddened look on her face, laying waste to the air temple, flooded his mind's eye.

"I was able to contain her but now, the danger has re-awakened. You must stop her before it's too late.", Korra finished .

"But... I can't.. I'm not ready yet! I've not finished my airbending training! Not to mention , I've not even begun water and earth yet! What if I fail?", Kazu blurted out, pouring out his doubts to Korra, who smiled at him.

"I know you won't. I am a part of you, Kazuhiko. I will be there to help you when you need it. For now, we must go our separate ways.", Korra remarked .

"But I don't know how to get to you again. I didn't even do it this time on purpose. I just sort of ended up here. What If I have questions?", Kazu remarked quickly. If there was anyone who knew the pressures of being the Avatar, it was Korra.

" I'll be here if you call me again. ", Korra said. Kazu nodded slowly but he couldn't stop himself from giving her a pitying look, when he thought about the fact that she was dead now, and she had noticed.

"Do not pity those who have passed, Kazuhiko.", Korra stated with a smile."Pity the living. And above all, pity all those who live without love.".

Pity those who live without love? How was that supposed to help him?

* * *

As Kazu came to, his head felt strangely light and the scent of wet, mossy shrubbery filled his nostrils and he could hear a dull murmuring , mixed with the soft, squishy sound of feet walking over slushy mud.

He could feel cold metal on his wrists and a second later, as the person carrying him made a misstep, he heard the distinct clinking noise of the metal cuffs colliding into each other. Trying to keep his cool, he did his best not to move a muscle as he opened his eyes ever so indiscreetly, just enough so that he could see through the lashes. The vision wasn't very clear but he could make out five dark figures walking a few paces behind him.

Just then, a raspy female voice spoke out, one that was so near to his ear that it could only have come from the person who was carrying him.

"If we continue at this speed, we won't reach the base today. ", the female chided commandingly to the others following her.

"Don't you give me orders, lady!", Kazu heard one of the men yell at the woman carrying him.

"I think you misunderstand my leniency for passiveness. A common mistake. It will be your loss, if you think you can take me on .", the woman taunted him and the mocking tone in her raspy voice was clearly evident , even to Kazu, who had no idea who this woman was.

"That's it! I don't care what Raman said to do or not do! She's going under a rockslide right now!", the man roared as the woman dropped Kazu to the ground, as if he was some lifeless ragdoll. It took all his willpower to not make a sound as his rib hit a jagged rock beneath him.

Ta-lin easily redirected the metal plates shot at her, impaling them to the ground before she shot precisely aimed air blasts at Chin, forcing the burly earthbender to shoot up a pillar of rock to shield himself. He then ripped up the pillar and sent it hurtling at the woman he hated. All the other airbenders would've simply ducked over the pillar but Ta-lin's method were a bit more unorthodox for an airbender. She stood her ground, planted her feet firmly to the mossy floor and shot two consecutive air blasts at the pillar, the first one slicing into the rock's exterior, cracking it open, before the second one seemingly shattered the pillar into smaller crumbs the size of a palm, littering the forest floor.

The onlooking Bandits, along with Chin, stared in shock at the airbender. They had never seen the type of airbending that the woman was using .

"No need to be shocked. Your rational brain acknowledges that you are outclassed, yet your barbaric side refuses to believe the truth, Chin.", Ta-lin taunted the earthbender and it worked, for Chin roared in humiliation and clear rage, ripping out boulders from the ground and sending them towards Ta-lin in succession, with the intention to crush her body now.

As Kazu lay there, watching discreetly through his lashes, he could see the traces of a sort of elemental battle taking place, glints of metal whizzing around combined with the sound of rocks being ripped out of the ground and the sensation of wind being manipulated. He also thought he could hear the voices of the others, presumably the other bandits, protesting against the fight. He need to get out of here as soon as possible.

As Karan and the other bandits watched, Ta-lin created a protective sphere of circulating wind around her and began advancing towards Chin with a mocking smile on her face. She had begun to back the bandit up into a nearby cove, unnoticed by him as he was busy panicking, pelting metal plates and boulders at Ta-lin in vain.

With everybody's back turned to him, Kazu couldn't stop himself from widening his eyes in shock as he saw her moving her arms in a clockwise motion and as they all watched, a sphere of rapidly circulating air materialized around Chin's head, encasing it whole. For a few moments, he simply stared at them all, confused as to what she was doing. Then, gradually, he began to feel the effects of having access to oxygen blocked. Ta-lin had created a vacuum of air around the bandit's head, thereby denying him of the ability to breath and as a result, Chin's face began to contort as his lungs struggled to function properly. His eyes began to pop out of their sockets in strain as he clawed at his throat painfully.

"What're you doing? STOP!", one of the bandits yelped at Ta-lin but she simply ignored him, glaring venomously at her victim as she continued to move her arms around, keeping the vacuum intact.

"NO!", Karan yelled in horror at what she was doing as one of his compatriots shot a metal plate at her, forcing her to lose her concentration on Chin and the air vacuum around his head evaporated. But it was already too late. They all watched as he plomped to his knees before crumpling to the ground in an unmoving heap, the ghost of his horrified expression still etched on his face.

Nobody moved as Ta-lin eased out of her wind sphere, a smirk on her face.

That's it . Kazu had seen enough. This _had_ to be that woman that Korra had warned him about.

As Ta-lin turned to the remaining bandits, who were staring at her with fear and shock written on their faces, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something move . By the time her brain had registered what was happening, Kazu was already on his feet, bolting away down the hilly forest floor, sprinting down the bed of fallen leaves, ducking around the many spirit vines that stretched out over the area.

"NO! ", Ta-lin roared ferociously as she shot an air blast at Kazu, which missed him by inches, instead striking an nearby oak-pine tree, slicing the trunk clean through.

Fury written on her face, the airbender bounded out after the escaping Avatar. She couldn't let him get away. She wouldn't. After a few moments of confusion, Karan and some of the other bandits ran after her, while two remained behind, horrified expressions on their faces as they edged towards their fallen comrade.

His heart drumming against his ribs, Kazu bolted down through the forestry running for his life. As he leapt away, he felt a strange, sensation, through his spin, travelling up through the back of his neck, over his head. Instinctively, Kazu airbent himself out of the way, changing direction as a vertical air whip missed him by inches.

"YOU CAN'T RUN ,BOY!", Kazu heard a maniacal female voice roar from over twelve feet behind him. He seemed to be certainly a lot more athletic than his chaser but he immediately regretted thinking that, for as he rounded a tree bend, he thought he saw the woman muster up a cloud of air beneath her feet and she began gliding down towards him, much , much faster than how she had been chasing him up until now. Kazu didn't even know airbenders could do that.

He ran as fast as he could but the airbender was clearly gaining on him and when she was a mere four feet behind him, Kazu halted in his tracks and Ta-lin , who hadn't been expecting the sudden stop, shot forward and Kazu seized the opportunity to jump up to shoot a powerful fireball from his heels, aimed at her back, sending her off her gliding cloud and off a few feet, sliding across the mossy floor as smoke trailed off her back, where she had been hit. She glared at him as he ran off in a different direction. There was no way he cold hold his ground against her with his arms cuffed up.

/

Ryoshi and Kiara eyed the green canopy below them as Taka floated through the skies, the airship a few dozen feet behind them. The airbison were flying scattered across the area, trying to locate the missing Avatar as quickly as possible.

"Where could they be?", Ryoshi muttered apprehensively as Kiara rubbed his back to try and comfort him.

"Hey, he's the Avatar, Ryo. What could possibly hurt him?", Kiara remarked with a snort.

"But he's only sixteen.", Ryoshi retorted.

"And I'm seventeen and you're twenty-one...I don't see your point.", Kiara remarked with a pointed , all of a sudden, Kiara's attention changed as she noticed something strange with Taka.

"Hey. Is it just me or is your bison going down?", Kiara muttered and Ryoshi looked down from his spot on Taka's saddle, noticing that she was right.

"Taka? What's the matter buddy? ", Ryoshi remarked, yanking at the bison's reins but for some reason, Taka simply grumbled protestingly in response, yanking back at Ryoshi and continuing to descend.

/

Back on the airship, Temujin had noticed that Ryoshi's airbison was lowering down.

"What are they doing?", he mumbled as he squinted his eyes, Yin handing him a pair of binoculars from the metal cupboard nearby.

"Maybe they found something?" , she suggested as Temujin rolled the edge of the device, focusing the vision on Taka .

"Not likely, they have protocol to radio in to the others in case they found something important.", Temujin responded.

/

"What's wrong with him?", Kiara remarked as the air bison refused to listen to them, continuing to descend back down at a slow pace, now heading towards what looked like a sort of clearing in the forestry.

"I dunno. ", Ryoshi remarked.

"Shouldn't we radio the others?", Kiara suggested.

"No. We can't unless we're absolutely sure it's got something to do with Kazu. ", Ryoshi remarked, shaking his head."Let's just find out what he wants.".

/

Kazuhiko was tumbling back down the mossy slopes as metal plates wizzed past his couldn't afford to stand and fight the bandits, in case the airbender caught upto him again. He was simply left to ducking and weaving around to avoid the blades .

On of the metalbenders began whizzing in towards Kazu from the side, using a slab of earth to skid towards him at high speeds. His metal gauntlets were drawn out and razor blades protruded out, ready to impale Kazu down . By this time, Kazu was already running at a rapid pace and he couldn't just stick his heels into the ground and stop. In a desperate attempt, Kazu lashed out as the bandit drew close from the side, kicking out a fire stream from his heels at the man, sending him flying off his rock slab as Kazu tumbled down the slope in the momentum before he rolled back up his feet and continued his descent.

As he bolted round the bend of a giant banyan-oak, a jet of ice shot past his ear, impaling the tree near him. Kazu got a glimpse of the waterbender bandit from before, chasing after him, his forearms encased in water whips as he skid towards Kazu down the slope on a slide of ice that followed his feet trail. Not looking back, Kazu began to randomly shot fire streams over his shoulder at the bandit, forcing him to swerve his ice slide around to avoid the jets. But it was rather easy, since Kazu wasn't exactly aiming while he was attacking and there wasn't a lot he could do with his hands tied up.

Karan could sense the increase in the wind speed around them and had an inkling that Ta-lin was closing in from somewhere.

He began shooting ice bullets at the figure of the escaping teenager and watched as he ducked out of the way . As Karan chased after the escaping firebender, the waterbender shot a stream of ice along the forest floor and it managed to catch the teenager , forcing him to slip off his feet.

Kazu slipped on the ice that the waterbending bandit had shot at his feet and he spun around to catch sight of the bandit advancing towards him with his ice gauntlet drawn out. A little panicky, on instinct, Kazu bent his knees to his chest and thrust them back out, shooting a powerful air blast at the waterbender, which managed to catch him by surprise and blasted him backwards off his feet .Kazu seized the opportunity and leapt to his feet, bolting away, not looking back to see the shocked expression on the bandit's face. He had unwittingly exposed the fact that he could bend more than one element.

/

Taka now stood on the wet mossy floor of the forest clearing , cooing vaguely into the forest, as if expecting an answer.

"Um.. Do you think it's bison mating season or something?", Kiara suggested with an awkward chuckle before Ryoshi gave her a pointed look.

"No. It's gotta be something else.", Ryoshi responded.

"Soooo. What then?", Kiara inquired, scratching her head, evidently confused.

As an answer, however, the two of them heard the distinct sound of elemental bending taking place, followed by vague angry voices.

"What the flameo was that? ", Kiara muttered as the two of them looked around. Then, they began to hear the sound of feet sprinting across the leaf-laden forest flooring.

"Get ready.", Ryoshi muttered as he dropped Taka's reins, assuming an airbending stance whilst Kiara began to draw out an orb of water from her water skin. For a few strained seconds, nothing happened besides the sound getting louder and louder, drawing nearer and nearer.

Then, a burst of flames shot out from the boundary of spirit vine shrubbery that encircled the clearing and the figure of a teenaged boy leapt out, followed by a gaunt looking woman with an uncouth appearance, who seemed like she was shooting air at him.

"Kazu!", Ryoshi yelled in dismay as they watched him land on his palms before moving his feet together as one unit, shooting a burst of flames at Ta-lin, who managed to avoid it, summersaulting out of the way. Kiara leapt out of the saddle,shooting out ice bullets towards the airbender as Ryoshi scrambled towards the radio transmitter.

"We've got the Avatar! ", he yelled into the black handheld receiver before Temujin's strained voice crackled out from the other end.

" _Zzat. Ryoshi. Stay where you are, we're inbound.".  
_

With that, Ryoshi airbent himself off of Taka's saddle, bounding towards the fight scene but midway, he was hit with a chunk of earth that was flung at him from his left side. Rolling on the ground, he got back up, groaning, to find two bandits advancing towards him, shooting out metal plates from their gauntlets, which he managed to maneuver around before reciprocating.

Ta-lin growled vehmently as the Avatar avoided her air blast by inches and she was about to spin around to strike him down before she sensed danger and she managed to maneuver around as a dozen ice bullets shot towards her, missing her by centimeters .

"Back off!", Kiara threatened as Kazu got to his feet.

"Or what?", Ta-lin taunted. "You think you two can take me on?",she snorted. Kazu grit his teeth, glaring daggers at Ta-lin.

"My guess is that you still haven't finished your airbending training,boy. If that is the case, how can you possibly hope to fight me, half-baked Avatar?", Ta-lin leered, taunting the teenager, who assumed a firebending stance.

Then, in a spur motion, Ta-lin leapt forth, shooting out consecutive air punches and kicks at the two of them, forcing them to duck around to try and avoid the barrage of attacks.

/

Ryoshi cartwheeled over a dozen ice bullets that shot towards him before finding a firm footing, spinning around and using his gliderstaff to shot out an air swipe that caught Karan off guard, hitting him hard on his abdomen and sending him flying off his feet, crashing into a tree a few feet behind him.

As Ryoshi bounded forwards to seize the opportunity, six metal plates shot towards him and wrapped around his ankles, hurling him upside down, off his feet and sending him crashing to the ground. Groaning as he got to his feet, he caught sight of three more of the metalbending bandits standing next to Karan.

"Oh come on.. Where do these guys keep coming from?", Ryoshi groaned as Karan shot an ice spear at him.

/

Kiara burst forward,shooting her water tentacle, only to have Ta-lin maneuvering around the water .

"Is that all you got?!", Ta-lin taunted as she bounded towards Kiara and thrust her open palm towards her. As a torrent of wind began forming in her palm, Kazu leapt forward and shot out a burst of fire right in the heart of the torrent Ta-lin was about to create, forcing her off balance as she tumbled back a few feet before finding her footing and standing back up.

"You're not getting away from me, Avatar!", the airbender hissed as she advanced towards him but Kazu kicked out another fire blast but she swung her arms around, maneuvering around it and she repelled Kiara's water whip attack with an air block. As the two teenagers shot their respective elements at the airbender, Ta-lin began to duck and weave around it, shooting out air punches and kicks , her elbows tucked in close to her side to avoid being hit. She could easily take the girl out with an air barrage but it would take out the Avatar as well and that was not what she was looking for. She needed him alive for now.

Kiara was being forced back, using her water whips for defense, repelling the barrage of air attacks the woman was shooting at her. Kazu grit his teeth and bounded forwards, summersaulting over one of Ta-lin's air blasts before shooting out a fire blast from his heels at her, forcing her to leap up several feet to avoid it. Mid-air, the airbender spun around vertically and shot out and air swipe from her heel, aimed at Kazuhiko and he scrambled out of the way as the burst of strong wind hit the patch of ground he had occupied just seconds ago.

As Ta-lin's focus was on Kazu, she left herself open to Kiara and the waterbender lunged forward and shot a jet of water at her that struck the airbender head on,forcing her back as she cartwheeled backwards to avoid the force.

"We're not finished!", Kiara roared as she chased after the airbender, her forearms encased in water whips. Kazu, who had rolled out of reach from Ta-lin's attack, caught sight of Ta-lin luring Kiara away from him and he shot an air swipe that swiveled towards the airbender from behind her and managed to catch her unawares, tripping her momentarily, giving Kiara an opening to strike.

For a moment, it looked like it had worked. Ta-lin had an alarmed look on her face and Kiara was mid air, her arm swinging around with her water whip to strike the airbender. But then, that moment ended as quickly as it had begun. Ta-lin managed to flip backflip out of Kiara's reach and created an air funnel around her than lifted the waterbender off her feet , sending her rocketing out of the place, crashing painfully into a thick tree trunk over twelve feet away, groaning.

"Enough of this. You're coming with me, Avatar.", Ta-lin hissed at Kazu as he glared back at her. As she took two steps towards him, however, the distinct sound of a herd of cooing air bison approaching from the skies echoed through the air.

The two of them stopped and glanced upwards, catching sight of at least seven air bison flying in towards them, followed by a much larger water tribe air ship . The lotus sentries on the air bison stood up and began shooting their elements at Ta-lin, who began maneuvering around, weaving and evading the elemental attacks raining down on her.

Ryoshi shot an air torrent at three of the bandits that were bounding towards him , sending them crashing towards Karan, who leapt over the flying bodies. As the waterbender was about to shoot a water jet at Ryoshi, the shadow of the approaching air ship loomed over them and they looked up , seeing the small army of air bison moving in.

Ta-lin grit her teeth as she glared up at the newcomers, dodging their elemental attacks. She wasn't foolish enough to try and take on such an large battalion on her own . It would risk everything she had done until now.

"NO! We failed!", she roared venomously in anger before she began rotating her arms clockwise over her head, forming a torrential spiral of air that clouded the entire clearing from the view of the newcomers. Then, as the dust and the smoke cleared, she, along with the other bandits, seemingly vanished from view, leaving only Kazu, Taka, Ryoshi and Kiara on the floor, glancing around in confusion.

"How the heck did she get away?", Kiara groaned , clutching her rib area as Ryoshi walked over towards Kazu to help him out of the metal cuffs still on his wrists.

"The hostiles seemed to have retreated.", one of the four sentries on Kenji's air bison stated and the teenaged airbender, who had an exhilarated expression up until now, let out an annoyed groan.

"Aw man! When am I gonna get to see some _action_?!", he chided, slamming his fist into his palm in disgruntlement as the sentries exchanged perturbed expressions with each other.

/

Kazu walked into the common room of the water tribe air ship, rubbing his wrists now that there were no metal restraints around them. He was evidently shaken and appeared incredibly weak. But felt more weaker and drained than he looked. It was just now that he had been told that he had gone missing for almost twenty hours. Ryoshi and Kiara were following him through, with her still clutching her rib from being smashed violently by Ta-lin into the tree trunk.

As soon as the Avatar entered the room, Temujin rushed forth with a concerned expression on his face, followed by some of the other air masters, including master Yin.

"Kazuhiko! Are you alright? None of the search parties had been able to find you until now.", the bald air master remarked with a slightly relieved tone.

"Don't mind me. I just got thrown into a thick ,painful spirit vine tree trying to help the avatar. Just one of those things, right?", Kiara remarked irritably from behind Kazu. One of the healers aboard the air ship led her away as the elders glanced at her with raised eyebrows.

"I'm fine.. I guess.", Kazu replied, a little shaky and drained of energy. He also felt unnervingly hungry. But he had more pressing matters at hand.

" But there's something else. It was Ta-lin who captured me. The airbender that Korra warned me about.", he stated, a little shakily.

"What!?", Temujin exclaimed in fears were growing more and more true by the minute.

"You met Avatar Korra?", Ryoshi exclaimed in a flabbergasted manner, voicing the astonishment of some of the other nodded.

"When I was captured, I was unconscious and somehow I ended up in the spirit world.", he replied. " Korra found me and warned me that this woman was dangerous and was after me . I don't know why she's after me but she seems to have some connection with the air temple. ", he continued, feeling a little disturbed as he recalled the memory of the bandit's face contorting due to lack of oxygen .

Temujin exchanged silent, shocked glances with all the other air masters.

"Either way. You are safe. That is all that matters for now. We will work on how to deal with the threat once we are back in the temple.", he stated after a short pause.

* * *

"So you failed to acquire the boy you seek, even with my bandits helping you?", Raman remarked , gritting his teeth as Ta-lin had just told him that their deal would have to be continued, since she still didn't have the Avatar with her.

"Failure is an objective overstatement. You said your men were skilled and would be more than upto the task I had at hand and yet, they got beat by a bunch of teenagers. ", Ta-lin hissed as she tried to control her anger.

"Well. If you had said that the boy you were after was the Avatar, I would've taken more precautions. I would've come myself.", Raman spat and at this response, a look of shock flitted across her face momentarily before it reverted back to the unreadable expression. She hadn't told anyone her true motive. There had to be only one way that this oaf had knowledge of the boy's identity.

"One of my brothers saw him firebending _and_ airbending. Not something just anyone can do.", he remarked coldly.

"It doesn't matter. Our agreement still holds. You give me assistance and I help remove the air nation as your threat.", Ta-lin remarked bluntly as if nothing had changed.

As an answer, Raman turned away from her and stood silently for a few seconds, his palms clasped behind him.

"No. We don't.", he stated coldly. A small smirk stretched the corners of Ta-lin's lips.

"You take my men and go after a teenaged boy without disclosing the important fact that he was the Avatar . That was forgivable. But then you abandon one of my brothers and kill and force them to act on your will?", he hissed in anger.

"And you unwittingly exposed the location of the air temple to my kin that you took with you, thereby eliminating my need for your help. ", Raman stated smartly as he turned to face the airbender woman.

"We no longer have an agreement. ".

"You know, when they say that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, they really have it wrong.", Ta-lin stated calmly with a smirk on her face.

"Enough small talk.", Raman spat. "You can leave silently, which is more than you deserve, or I can show you why we are feared in these provinces.".

Ta-lin didn't speak, simply staring at the leader of the bandit clan with a calm expression.

"I think I would like to see if you live up to your reputation indeed.", she stated firmly, assuming a bending stance.

Without warning, Raman began shooting out metal plates in rapid motion at Ta-lin,forcing her to cartwheel backwards to avoid the whizzing blades. He definitely was a lot more skilled than the other metalbenders she had come across so far. But that was just a minor achievement.

She began to duck and weave under the barrage of metal, bobbing lightly on her toes with a half smirk on her face. It was a useful tactic, to throw the opponent off balance by taunting them. And Raman seemed to fall for it, roaring as he began to shoot metal and kicking out small boulders at Ta-lin, attempting to strike her down.

"Looks like you're off your game.", Ta-lin taunted as she bobbed around.

In a burst of rage, the leader of the bandit clan shot seven metal plates at her and while she was engaged with the attack, he took control of the slab of rock on which she was standing and ripped it up off the ground, throwing her off her feet, where she narrowly managed to avoid the metal plates as she was sent crashing into a wall behind her.

"Who's off their game now?", he leered at her as she glared back at him.

"I'll admit. Good move. Now my turn.", she stated with venom and before Raman had time to register what she had said, she spun around off her feet and kicked out two air powerful air blasts from her heels, the first one catching him and throwing him off him feet, whilst the second one followed up, meeting him painfully.

Outside Raman's hall, in the cave labyrinth, a few of the passing by bandits were walking by passively, as the cave walls were almost soundproof and they had no inclination of the elemental battle taking place on the other side. Then, taking them by surprise, the cave wall burst open ad a body rocketed out from within.

As the bandits moved back, a little taken by surprise and shocked, they took notice of their leader getting back up to his feet, groaning in pain as the airbender woman walked out of the crumbling wall of dust and debris, a cold smile on her face.

As they realized what was happening, they drew out their elements, Karan amongst them. However, they came to a halt when Raman's voice rang out through the labyrinth.

"No! Don't. This is my fight. I can handle her.", he stated, getting to his feet and assuming a bending stance.

"I want you all to know that I would never ask you to do something that I'm not willing to do on my own.", he ordered them as Ta-lin smirked.

"Valiant. But foolish.", she stated .

As an answer, Raman lurched forward, moving his arms around swiftly, shooting out a barrage of metal plates that he had bent into sickle-like curved razor blades, with the intention of killing the woman now. Ta-lin began to swivel around, skimming her feet across the cave floor, avoiding the metal plates one by one before she locked her attention and swiftly moved her right arm in a clockwise motion from left to right, therby directing the metal plates off of her with a wind swipe and impaling them to the ground next to her. He then ripped out a chunk of the ground beneath them and sent it hurling at her, only to have her shatter it to crumbs with a powerful, concentrated air blast that struck the chunk of earth down the middle.

She then leapt up and kicked and punched out air blasts at Raman, who was able to avoid the first attack, but fell victim to the second.

"You have the skill but lack the creativity or the drive to excel at your element. It's a shame really. ", Ta-lin stated bluntly as she watched him crawl forward. She looked up momentarily with her eyes alone, catching sight of a cove of rocks that hung from the cave ceiling then she looked back down at the leader of the clan.

Then, with a swift motion, she clapped her palms together and thrust them upwards, creating an updraft of precise, concentrated air that shot towards the ceiling and struck the cove, dislodging the stalagmites that plummeted down the ten feet drop, crumbling over the figure of the weakened Raman, who vanished behind the rocks piling up on him.

After a few prolonged seconds of the rocks settling, the pile lay where Raman once stood. Now , as the dust settled, there was no motion. All the bandits had their eyes wide open,shocked and horrified, staring at the spot where the leader had vanished,seemingly crushed to death.

"Do I have your attention now!?", Ta-lin called out loud to the onlookers, her voice echoing through the labyrinth. As the shocked and unsettled faces of the bandits stared up at her, she knew she had them in her grasp.

"There has been a change of leadership. You did not RESPOND to reason, so now you will know fear! ", she roared out venomously _._

"Spread the word. Until I have the Avatar, these caves ..are my caves. You answer to me now. If anyone has a problem with that, they can give my warm regards to your fallen leader sooner than you expected. _Do I make myself clear_?!", she roared out loud, glaring daggers at the bandits, who stood around unsurely and evidently shaken.

A shadow of a leer stretched across her face as she glanced around the area.

"I think there has been a misconception . Something you all should know about me . I _always_ get what I want. ", she sneered threateningly.

* * *

 **That's all for this chapter drop a review , it helps me correct my mistakes. And I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
**

 **Until next time, Avatar Yip,Yip!**


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